Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Feston Malekezo
Published on 2024-04-16 06:31:19
The Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has provided guidance stating that contract documents are not entirely public information due to the presence of private information that must be protected. Section 15 of the Access to Information Act (ATI) mandates information holders to disclose information in their possession to the general public, including contracts, licenses, permits, authorizations, and public-private partnership arrangements. However, MHRC Director of Civil and Political Rights Peter Chisi emphasized that the focus when disclosing such information should be on details such as the background of the contractor, contract duration, and value, rather than sharing all contents of the contracts.
Chisi explained, “Section 15 of the Access to Information Act requires institutions to proactively disclose information in the public interest. Among the information that has to be disclosed are contract documents. So, the guidance from MHRC is that disclosing all the contents of the contracts might actually end up putting in public personal information or private information. As such, the guidance that we are providing is that whenever they [office-bearers] are disclosing such information, they must actually focus on disclosing the content in terms of who the contractors are, what services they are providing, the duration of the contract and the value of the contract. That is the information that is relevant and can promote transparency.”
However, not everyone agrees with this guidance provided by MHRC. Willy Kambwandira, Executive Director of the Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency (Csat), argued that the guidance goes against the provisions of the ATI Act and violates basic principles of transparency and accountability. Kambwandira stated, “As provided for under Section 15 of the ATI law, information holders are duty-bound to provide all contractual information to the general public. Otherwise, we fear that this [guidance] can only fuel abuse of public resources as people will hide behind contractual obligations not to provide information. This must be challenged.”
Similarly, Boniface Chibwana, the national coordinator of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, emphasized that the spirit of the Act is to ensure transparency and accountability in government actions. Chibwana urged the MHRC to ensure that no information is treated as private to uphold the essence of the Act.
The Access to Information Act came into effect in September 2020, aiming to promote transparency and accountability in Malawi. As discussions continue regarding the disclosure of contract documents, it is essential to strike a balance between public access to information and the protection of private and personal information contained in these documents.
Read the original article on The Times
