The Consultant working on the Right to Access Information Commission RAIC and World Bank project titled: Services to Review Proactive Disclosure Scheme for the
Right to Access Information Commission, has presented findings on the 20 pilot Ministries Departments and Agencies MDAs including Ministries of Health, Basic and Secondary Education, Tourism, and 10 Non State Actors NSAs including Campaign for Good Governance, Society for Democratic Initiative among others.
Section 8 (2) of the Right to Access Information obliges public Authorities to disseminate information on various platforms, including on their website, a publication scheme to promotes transparency and accountability, which is why the Consultant Sahr Kendema, was contracted to help produce schemes that will enhance accountability in Information Access.
Welcoming representatives of the 20 MDAs and 10 NSAs, the Chairman and Information Commissioner Dr. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw said there is need for MDAs and NSAs to know their standing when it comes to compliance with the RAI Act. He emphasized the fact that public authorities and NSAs are delivering services to the public and therefore need to keep the people abreast with what obtains in their institutions. He encouraged them to see RAIC as partners in development as Access to information is among the top scorers in the latest MCC report, urging all to make most of the process.
Consultant Sahr Kendema presented his findings about the MDAs and NSAs compliance with proactive disclosure of Information in the form of symbolic ‘traffic lights’ method; with green indicating the availability of information, blue indicating not applicable, amber indicating incomplete Information and red indicating not available.
MDAs and NSAs received the presentation in good faith but however expressed concerns in areas like the display of monthly remuneration on websites which they say may cause confusion because of the disparity in salaries, the running of websites that are not updated, scanty information on websites and the use of other means rather than the website to display information.
At the end of the consultation, the MDA and NSA representatives pledged to convey the messages to their institutions to ensure that they comply with section 8 of the RAI Act so that by the time the next review is made, their institutions would have scored a pass mark.
The right to access information Commission RAIC is funded by the World Bank, under the regime of the Public Financial Management Improvement and Consolidation project (PFMICP) unit in the Ministry of Finance to ensure transparency and accountability in the public and private sector by making information access effortless.
