MHRC pushes ministry into action on ATI

Ministry of Information and Digitisation has taken steps to make operational implementation of the Access to Information (ATI) law by producing a list of information officers to facilitate access to information.

The decision follows a concern Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) raised on December 19 2023 over delays to publish names of information officers in all public institutions in line with the law.

In a written response to our questionnaire yesterday, Minister of Information and Digitisation Moses Kunkuyu said government was not under pressure to implement the law, but was following the process to fully support it.

He said: “Let me assure the nation that access to information is guaranteed not only by law but also by the will of the county’s political leadership.

“All public institutions are going to have information officers through the same methodical process to avoid having a law that does not fully serve its intention.”

MHRC chairperson Chikondi Chijozi said in the statement the commission was dismayed at the slow pace in implementing provisions of the access to information law.

She said: “The commission has observed with dismay that since the operationalisation of the Access to Information Act, 2017 on 30th September 2020, the Ministry of Information and Digitisation has not published the names of appointed or designated information officers as required by the Access to Information Regulations 2021”.

Regulation 3(3) states that “the minister shall publish names of information officers in at least two newspapers of nationwide circulation at the beginning of each financial year”.

The statement said the commission has engaged the ministry on several occasions on this matter but to no avail.

Coincidentally at the time the statement came out, the ministry also published in The Nation and The Daily Times newspapers names of information officers for various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) .

Asked why the names were published two years late, Kunkuyu stuck to his line that this had to be done methodically since the law is new.

MHRC also raised concern that some MDAs were yet to appoint information officers and that many had not put in place mechanisms for internal review.

In September 2020, barely three months in power, the Tonse Alliance administration gazetted the law and put it to use from September 30 earning praise from wide and far. This law had not seen light of the day for almost 17 years of pushing.