The National Lottery Regulatory Commission has been inducted
into the “Freedom of Information (FOI) Hall of Shame” by the Media RightsAgenda (MRA), reports ITRealms.
NLRC induction, ITRealms
gathered, came due to its constant violation of the provisions of the FOI Act
and operating in secrecy contrary to its own core values, which include
transparency and accountability.
MRA’s Programme Officer, Mr. Idowu Adewale, in a press
statement made available to ITRealms,
noted that since the passage of the FOI Act into Law in 2011, the Commission
has not only failed to carry out its duties and responsibilities under the Act,
but has actually been conducting its business in secrecy, thereby undermining
the objectives of the Act.
The Commission, he said, is an agency of the Federal
Government established in 2005 to regulate the operations of lottery business
in Nigeria, promote transparency and accountability in the lottery system and
protect the interests of players, stockholders and the general public.
Mr. Adewale pointed out that contrary to Section 2 of the
FOI Act which requires all public institutions, including the Commission, to
proactively disclose certain types of information to the public and to update
these categories of information whenever changes occur as well as to make such
information readily available to the public through the various means listed in
the Act, namely print, electronic, online methods and at the offices of the
institution, the Commission has failed to publish the information that it is
required to proactively disclose under this section.
According to him, although the Commission says in its
mission statement that it is committed to sustainable and transparent lotteries
driven by professionalism and leading technologies for social and economic
development, and meeting the needs of stakeholders, the Commission’s consistent failure to proactively disclose
information relating to its receipt or expenditure of public or other funds and
a range of other types of information, as required by section 2(3)(d)(v) of the
Act, is contrary to its mission, in addition to violating the clear provisions
of the Law.
MRA also accused the Commission of unrepentantly breaching
Section 29 of the FOI Act, which places an obligation on all public
institutions to submit annual reports to the Attorney-General of the Federation
on their implementation of the Act, noting that since the Act was passed into
Law nearly seven years ago, the Commission had not submitted any report to the
Attorney-General of the Federation or issued any such report for any year.
“Such blatant disregard for a statutory obligation has no
place in a system of government characterized by the rule of law. This type of
conduct is offensive and is capable of bringing the Government to ridicule as
it creates the impression that rules, laws and regulations are of no
consequence because public institutions and the officials who superintend over
them are at liberty to ignore such rules, laws and regulations. The Federal
Government should respond with harsh sanctions to send a clear message to all
public institutions that there will be no impunity for public institutions or
officials that violate the Law,” he said.
He noted that “there is no indication whatsoever that the
Commission has provided the requisite
training for its officials on the public’s right of access to
information or records held by the Commission or that it has appropriately
trained its officials to effectively implement the Act, as it is required to do
by section 13 of the Act”.
Mr. Adewale accused the Commission of failing to comply with
Section 2(3) (f) of the Act which requires all public institutions such as the
Commission to designate an appropriate officer to whom applications for information
under the Act should be sent and to proactively publish the title and address
of such an officer.
On the issue of the Commission’s responsiveness to requests
for information from members of the public, he observed that the failure of the
Commission to submit its annual reports to the Attorney-General of the
Federation has made it virtually impossible to determine the number of
applications for access to information that it has received for each year since
the Act was passed into Law and the number of such applications that it
processed and granted for any particular year or overall.
Mr. Adewale said there was no justifiable excuse for the
Commission’s failure or apparent deliberate refusal to fulfill its duties and
obligations under the FOI Act and called on the relevant authorities of the
Federal Government to take stern measures to address the situation.
Launched in July 2017, the FOI Hall of Shame shines the
spotlight on public officials and institutions that are undermining the
effectiveness of the FOI Act through their actions, inactions, utterances and
decisions.
Nonye Dom/GEE
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