BPSR Bags National Freedom of Information Honour

BPSR Bags National Freedom of Information Honour

The Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) received highest score on assessments of compliance to the National Freedom of Information (FOI), leading other government agencies.

The National FOI ranking featured 213 MDAs, where only about 20 percent of them responded to the FOIA request raised.

The annual national FOI ranking was introduced in 2014 to examine the level of performance and compliance to FOIA by MDAs.

The assessment was conducted by Civil Society Organisations NGOs including International Centre for investigative Reporting (ICIR), Basic Rights watch, Media Rights Agenda, Right to know(r2k), BudgiT and Public private develop centre(PPDC).

Some of the criterias used to evaluate the agencies included proactive disclosure, details of level of disclosure, prompt responses, Number FOI training, details of desk officers on FOI, and publication of annual reports.

The Director General of BPSR, Mr. Dasuki Arabi, commended the panel for recognising the compliance of his agency to the Freedom of Information Act  (FOIA) which was introduced in Nigeria to align with the best practice in line with the new democratic order.

He said that BPSR would continue to comply with the FOIA whoch empowers citizen with the right to information, and mandate public institutions to be accountable by ways of keeping record of their activities, operations and business.

A representative of Minister of Justice and Special Adviser to the President on Economic Crimes, Mr Abiodun Aikhomu, enjoyed all government agencies to remain steadfast in compliance to the FOIA Act,as it remains the gateway to entrench accountability and transparency in governance.

He added that Nigeria’s signing into the Open Government Partnership (OGP) was part of government commitments to strengthen institutions for accountability and transparency.

Aliyu Umar Aliyu
Principal Information Officer
BPSR