Tweya attacks IPPR over information access report

INFORMATION minister Tjekero Tweya on Tuesday labelled a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) as being “unfounded and misleading”.

The report, titled ‘Access Denied’, was published and launched by the IPPR in early December last year, and contained the findings of an access to information survey of more than 100 public, private, civil society organisations and state-owned enterprises.

The report states that out of the 20 ministries approached with an information request, just five responded with the requested or similar information.

The report also stated that 80% of all organisations and institutions contacted did not respond, or could not provide the information requested. Another finding from the report was that nearly 60% of respondents did not respond to information requests in any meaningful way, and that roughly 85% of public enterprises approached for information were unresponsive to questions sent to them.

In addition, the report said that out of the 14 regions, just Erongo responded with the information requested, and in a reasonable time.

Tweya, however, dismissed the findings as unfounded and said the IPPR had a “malicious agenda” to discredit government.

He said he had contacted the ministries mentioned in the report and that his findings “were contradictory” to those of the report.

He also claimed that some of the information the IPPR could apparently not get hold of from ministries and government offices was “readily available in the public domain” and that the IPPR could also not provide a list of names and contact details of officials approached for information.

“Regrettably, the IPPR could not contact the officials handling public information. For all we know, they might have contacted any official who happened to answer their query at that particular time.

“We feel that this was done deliberately to suit their malicious agenda,” he charged.

In response, IPPR director Graham Hopwood yesterday issued a detailed rebuttal of the minister’s claims to the media. Hopwood also countered that the findings in the report were meant to “provide an opportunity for government and other sectors of Namibian society to identify weak points and best practices in the release of information”.

He said after they requested information, follow-up phone calls and emails were also made to the offices of relevant permanent secretaries.

Contrary to Tweya’s claim, he added that they had sent a list of officials and contact numbers to the information ministry in early December already.

“There was no further response from the ministry saying that the information provided was inadequate in any way,” he stated, noting that they had also checked the websites of the responsible ministries to confirm whether the information requested was available.

“This report was not simply aimed at exposing problems in government when it comes to access to information. There is no point in denying that access to information is problematic across different sectors of Namibian society. Improving access to information is something we can all work on together – in the spirit of Harambee – to ensure the public have the information they need,” Hopwood stated.

Late yesterday afternoon, Jane Mungabwa of the Action Namibia Coalition secretariat issued a statement in support of the IPPR and its report, and called on minister Tweya to give urgent attention to the issue of access to information at government level, and to see the IPPR report as an indicator of the urgency for an access to information law in Namibia.

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