Despite the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act by the National Assembly seven years ago, government agencies and security institutions continue to flout the law by hoarding information relating to the procurement and other open governance processes, a report has said.
The report launched weekend in Abuja by the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), said that 187 public institutions and 11 security sector organisations were accessed in 2018 FOI compliance ranking.
The report stated that only the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICR) in the public institutions category, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and Police Service Commission in the security institutions category complied with the FOI Act.
The two security organisations came first and second respectively in the ranking of 12 security organisations which included the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Defence Headquarters, Military Pension Board (MPB) and National Defence College (NDC).
The Data Analyst of PPDC, Jonathan Ebe Lafae, said FOI ranking compliance report which was also used to commemorate the International Right To Know Day, was based on an assessment of the level of access to procurement related information from the public institutions and security agencies.
According to him, the Ministry of Information, State House, Ministries of communication, Health, Communication, Finance; the National Television Authority (NTA), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF) all ranked last among other public institutions as they could not do proactive disclosure, respond to request for information or give full disclosure of public information at their disposal.
The annual ranking which started in 2013 with 15 institutions was put in place to assess how much access public institutions grant citizens to public expenditure information among others contained in the FOI Act.
The organisation’s programme officer, Onyekachi Chukwu, said security institutions in the country have not been compliant in proactively disclosing information and urged them to change.
“We don’t know why but we urge security institutions to do the needful and respond to FOI requests. As we continue to advocate for open contracting, for transparency and accountability as a civil society organisation, we urge public institutions and MDAs to do their best in being proactive in exposing information for the overall interest of everyone,” he said.
