By Politico staff writer
The Right to Access Information Commission (RAIC) has on Thursday 4th March 2021 engaged stakeholders at a Needs Assessment Result Sharing and Training of Trainers held in Makeni, as part of the work of the consultant of a RAIC/World Bank project titled: RAIC Needs Assessment in Proactive Disclosure of Information.
Speaking at the event, the acting national coordinator of Non-State Actors (NSAs), Mr Salieu Turay said accessing information aids and enhances their work. He said the session which brought together NSAs, Chief Administrators and Senior District Officers is an opportunity to promote transparency and accountability in the country, stressing the need for Ministries Departments and Agencies MDAs, and NSAs to proactively disclose information for public consumption.
He called on his colleague participants to make the most of this opportunity for the benefit of their members.
In his opening remarks, Chairman and Information Commissioner (CIC) of RAIC, Dr. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw said the RAIC is a national Commission that is well-decentralized. He added that holding a workshop in Makeni shows how effective the Commission has become as a truly national institution since he took over in November 2018. He said the workshop in Makeni is building on his Commission’s decentralisation drive which started in November 2019 when they held their first ever three-day strategic planning staff retreat in Bo.
Dr. Shaw said the mandate of the Commission is to facilitate access to information as a vehicle to promote transparency, accountability, and good governance, which he said they cannot do without effective partnership with state and non-state actors.
He therefore called on participants, mostly made up of Non-State Actors, including their regional coordinators and focal persons from all districts, as well as some local authorities and administrators, to serve as ambassadors of the RAIC and cascade all the take-away from the engagement to help their members understand their rights and obligations under the RAI law.
Paramount Chief of Bombali Shebora, Bai Shebora Kasanga 11, welcomed the RAIC and NSA participants to Makeni, pointing out that a lot of laws have been passed in Sierra Leone but not all have made the desired impact. He therefore called on RAIC to do more sensitization, especially in the area of classified information to allay the fears of public authorities.
In his Key note address, the Resident Minister North, Abu Abu Abdulai Koroma, thanked the Commission for what he described as a laudable venture of bringing together ‘critical members’ in the democratic dispensation which are NSAs. He pleaded with them to ensure that it was not just another workshop with no follow up action, but one that will affect the necessary change information access in Sierra Leone will bring.
Representing the Northern region head of Anti-Corruption Commission ACC, Brima Conteh expressed delight about the strides the RAIC has taken to uplift the status of the commission in the public eye.
The consultant and lead facilitator, Dr. Umaru Bah, presented the findings of the Needs Assessment survey to the participants.
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