Government Set To Table Access to Information Reform Bill
Thabo Kawana, Ministry of Information and Media Director spokesperson, has confirmed the Access to Information Bill is set to be tabled in Parliament during the first months of 2023.
The move will be welcomed by civil society groups who have long emphasised the benefits of such a bill for transparent governance. The group MISA Zambia, for example, describe it as a “fundamental human right” to be able to ask for and receive information held by public organisations and bodies. The bill will allow citizens and organisations alike to place freedom of information requests in order to exercise the right to access public data and information.
The move has the potential to increase accountability in Zambia. The New Dawn government made routing out corruption, and increasing accountability, a vital pledge of Hichilema’s presidential campaign. In 2020, before Hichilema’s election, Zambia ranked 113th out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. The syphoning of public funds into personal coffers through fraudulent activities was widespread under the previous administration and contributed to the financial dire straits the nation found itself in at the onset of the pandemic. Some of the most egregious instances included a government minister purchasing a personal helicopter using state funds. Earlier this year K65.3 million was recovered by the state from corrupt journalist Faith Musonda. This bill has the potential to decrease the viability of the perpetuation of such activities as citizens and journalists alike will be able to monitor activities in public bodies more easily.
Spokesperson Kawana revealed the Bill had been agreed in principle whilst responding to questions surrounding a private sector audit on the Ministry of Defence and National Security. The opposition has threatened to impeach the president over what they see as a breach of national security in allowing the audit to go ahead. However, Kawana emphasised “there is no iota of risk” involved as crucial documents will remain protected.
Citing the rise in domestic debt as an urgent driver of audits taking place across government ministries, Kawana explained the Auditor-General is overwhelmed at present owing to the importance and scale of reform that continues to be required.
“What the private audit firms are doing is not an outright overall audit per se, but an exclusive verification exercise on domestic debt, which rose sharply between 2016 and 2022, rising from K51.82 billion to K76.4 billion as of June 2022,” Kawana explained.
When asked how the six auditing companies were selected, Kawana emphasised it was an open and fair tender and if the opposition wished to take them to court over the matter the government would be transparent and hold no reservations. It was at this point the spokesperson emphasised the new Bill should soon be enacted.
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