The Republic has filed an appeal before Gambia’s Access to Information Commission against six public institutions that have refused to grant requested information under the Access to Information Act.
The ATI Act empowers members of the public – including journalists, researchers and citizens – to request information from public institutions. This extends to some private institutions that directly or indirectly operate or benefit from public funds or that perform public functions and services using public funds.
The institutions The Republic has filed an appeal against are specifically the Central Bank of the Gambia (CBG), the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC), Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Geology Department (GD) and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA).
The ATI Act envisages all requests to be made through an Information Officer which all public offices are supposed to appoint, according to Section 9 of the ATI Act. However, our experience shows that only a handful of public offices have one, with a significant number not even aware of this requirement.
According to Section 17 of the Act, the institutions are allowed a 21-day timeframe to reply. A lack of response after 21 days is deemed a refusal. When The Republic did not receive any response to its requests made within 21 days, we sought a review of the refusals in a letter to the heads of the institutions.
The Act gives the head of the institution 15 days to make a decision on the refusal or seek a 14-day extension. But the heads of the institutions failed to make any determination on the refusal of The Republic’s requests by their Information Officers. We filed for a reversal of the refusals of our requests before the Commission in the past few days.
In the past two months, The Republic has made at least 12 ATI requests, receiving only three positive responses. These were from the Gambia Public Procurement Authority (GPPA), National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment.
While we await a deadline on some other requests, the Ministry of Petroleum and the Ministry of Information – ironically the institution advocating for the full implementation of the law – have failed to reply within the dates set by law. After the elapse of their deadlines, the two institutions sought a 14-day extension.
