Noncompliance with ATIA still challenge-MHRC

Malawi: The Malawi Human Rights Commission's Progress Report on ATIA Implementation 2022 shows that many public institutions are not complying with the Act, despite the fact that the law requires information holders to perform certain tasks in facilitating access to information, such as appointing or designating information officers.

Unfortunately, the law does not penalise such non-compliant institutions, says the MHRC report.

The Ministry of Information is required by law to publish the names of the appointed or designated information officers at the start of each fiscal year.

However, says the report, the Ministry has not published a list of information officers since the ATIA's implementation in 2020.

The MHRC report, released on 14 September 2022, says this has also impacted the Commission's plans to conduct comprehensive training for all designated information officers, given their critical role in the implementation of all activities pertaining to Access to Information in their respective organisations.

Download the report below.