Report: 90pc of govt agencies cannot provide information

A REPORT by the Papua New Guinea Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (PNGEITI) shows that 90 per cent of state-owned agencies cannot provide public documents over the counter when requested.
The Transparency International PNG (TIPNG) report, titled “Right to information” (RTI), found that 54 per cent of these agencies (unnamed) already had the same information online.
It found that accessibility to public documents over the counter and through online platforms ranged from poor to moderate across agencies with the most accessible being corporate plans and the least being audited financial statements.
The report recommended that the Government developed a right to information policy outlining the process by which a citizen could expect to obtain information and prioritise the draft and review of a RTI Legislation Bill.
The report was launched last week by TIPNG.
PNGEITI National Secretariat head Lucas Alkan acknowledged the TIPNG efforts and its partners in getting the report out.
“I hopes that the relevant government agencies can use this report to address the existing gaps,” he said.
Alken acknowledged the efforts of the PNGEITI multi-stakeholder group that had made a consolidated effort to informing the public and various stakeholders through the EITI reporting process.
“The PNGEITI and its multi-stakeholder group have been supportive to open, transparent and accountable reporting in the PNG mining, oil and gas sector,” he said.
“The PNGEITI multi-stakeholder group has been committed to open data reporting through the EITI process and such has resulted in the production of five PNGEITI fiscal year reports from 2013 to 2017.
“The reports are published and are available online, the findings and recommendations are further disseminated through the members of the multi-stakeholder group.”