GOVERNMENT is taken aback by the civil society task force on freedom of information for accusing it of not being transparent.
Ministry of Information permanent secretary Amos Malupenga said if Government had not been transparent on the draft of the Access to Information (ATI) bill, it would not have constituted a task force.
“We came up with a taskforce in the name of transparency as Government and we put a team of civil society organisations to avoid suspicion,” Mr Malupenga said.
Mr Malupenga said in an interview yesterday that it was surprising that the same taskforce which he gave the freedom to choose a spokesperson and chose him (Mr Malupenga) has today gone to the press accusing Government of not being transparent.
Mr Malupenga said Government is committed to ensuring the ATI bill is launched for public scrutiny, debate and input.
He said before the end of this year, Government will launch the AIT bill as the Attorney General (AG) has finished going through the draft.
Mr Malupenga explained that the AIT bill would have been launched by now but was waiting for the input from the AG who has informed his ministry that few amendments need to be made to the draft bill.
He said: “The AG has perused the ATI draft bill and minor adjustments based on modern law are supposed to be done and this will be done this week.”
Mr Malupenga said the civil society task force should be sincere because the Patriotic Front (PF) government has made its stand clear concerning the Freedom of Information Bill and Independent Broadcasting Act (IBA).
He said his ministry has developed an open door policy and is ready for dialogue.
Mr Malupenga said on Friday, he met Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) officials who went to discuss with him on University of Zambia radio station.
He said after the discussion, he met MISA representatives and discussed the IBA and the Freedom of Information Bill.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
Hope we can get access to how much government is spending on travel,fuel,cars,expenses and talktime per month.
This is true freedom of information.
Learning how we are getting money stolen from by the people we are paying to work for us.
Africa and Zambia will never develop as long as our leaders behave like Amos Malupenga once they have power- camelions and no principles.
This Bill, why is the government changing goal posts? The PF promised to have it enacted within 90 days but how many days have passed so far? We are still debating, and now we are even told that the attorney general has made some changes; what changes are these? It is true that Malupenga is the one who is not being sincere and not the Task Force. This government has failed to fulfil all the promises they made while campaigning. They are now asking for understanding and more time. We don’t have the time; we are in a hurry to move. The sad part is they don’t want the oposition to remind them about the numerous promises they made, which promises they have failed to fulfil. I think the government needs to be sincere and own up to the people that it has failed to govern.
In the British system of government, which we partially inherited, Permanent Secretaries never make political statements. Instead, they quietly advise the ministers behind the scenes. Can someone tell me when Permanent Secretaries became politicians in Zambia?
this dummy PS..hahahaha
what suprises me is or confuse me is did unza radio apply to malupenga amos or they applied to zicta or ministry of information,which is which? coz malupenga is confusing us.
you made me laugh a lot my friend, i like your the question!
ment, your question!
i agree with mukame to add to that this malupenga thinks is an angel today than yesterday,infact yesterday he was burking from the opposition in a different way,don’t trust them all,they are politicians even if they used to write papers nowounder bwezani used to call then politicians,mukame keep it up!