A ranking of public institutions havs placed the Bureau of Public Sector Reform as most ready to respond to Freedom of Information requests, citing more than 100 other institutions for flouting FOI requirements.
Among 131 public institutions in the rankings compiled by the Public & Private Development Centre (PPDC), the Bureau alone scored highest for full proactive disclosure of information as required by FOI, responded to FOI requests within seven days and fully disclosed all requested information.
The Bureau improved its place in the fourth PPDC FOI rankings by integrating an FOI request form on its website to respond to requests within a week, according to BPSR director general Joe Abah.
One FOI request it responded to demanded the salaries and allowances of public figures from the President to Senators.
"The morale of the story is that these things are not threatening," said Abah. "A lot of requests we get, we simply refer people to our site, and it is all there displayed proactively."
PPDC ranks institutions on the basis of their response to information needed to monitor public procurement, and uploads all information onto the public analysis website Budeshi.
PPDC chief executive officer Seember Nyager said institutions covered in the rankings have grown from 15 in 2013 to 150 this year.
National Insurance Commission also responded to FOI requests within seven days and it’s level of disclosure was full, but it ranked second after BPSR for failing on proactive disclosure.
National Pension Commission and Tertiary Education Trust Fund both ranked for partial proactive disclosure and for taking up to 14 days to respond to FOI requests.
Agencies as Customs and ministries of finance and the Universal Basic Education Board took more than 15 days to respond to any FOI requests and their proactive disclosure was partial, ranking them in fifth position.
The ranking showed some 114 public institutions, including the State House, Press Council, Human Rights Commission, Central Bank, Nigeria Communications Commission, and Bureau of Public Procurement, flouted FOI requirement on proactive and full disclosure.
The Office of the Head of Service, Central Bank and Civil service are among 41 institutions that ranked lower for taking more than 15 days to respond to FOI requests.
The bottom pack include National Hospital, the health, communication and environment ministries, Bank of Industry, Uniabuja and NTA, all of which failed on proactive disclosure, did not disclose any information and did not respond to any FOI requests.
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