Marking the global Right to Know Day, The Right to Know (R2K), Nigeria today released a Proactive Disclosure Assessment (PDA) Report on the status of public sector compliance with the obligation to proactively disclose information under Nigeria’s Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, 2011. The assessment was carried out over the course of 11 months, from February 2014 to December 2014.
Proactive disclosure remains one of the statutory obligations under the FOI Act that public institutions must meet. The public institutions assessed are those that have made commendable effort to meet another statutory obligation under the FOI Act – by submitting their annual FOI compliance reports to the Office of the Attorney General’s office (OAGF) in 2012 and 2013, in compliance with Section 29 of the FOI Act.
Of a total of 39 government institutions assessed, the report finds that none had complied with the obligation to proactively disclose information – no institution obtained even a 20% compliance rating.
The average standard of disclosure is limited to basic information about the structure and general functions, which falls far below the legal requirement. Furthermore, the statutorily recommended methods for disclosure were underutilized, websites are cumbersome to navigate, and have dated information. No website has a designated FOI portal or information schedule that would facilitate ease of accessing and understanding information. To read the full Proactive Disclosure Assessment Report and Executive Summary, please click here.
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