ACB develops information tools to fight corruption
When information is accessible to everyone, corruption declines. This was the statement uttered by stakeholders who gathered at Kumbali Lodge recently to support the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) design information tools aimed at promoting access to information to fight corruption in the country.
With support from the World Bank, the workshop was organized by Center for Social Accountability and Transparency (CSAT) to aid the ACB design innovative tools which will promote access to information by the citizenry as well as strengthening the bureau’s data management systems.
The workshop brought together strategic stakeholders and participants from the World Bank Group (WBG), the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) and Centre for Social CSAT to support the ACB in discussing and designing the innovative information tools.
The workshop successfully supported the ACB to develop the information manual, information toolkit and case-tracking tool to help it fight corruption effectively through the promotion of access to information law.
ACB also developed strategies for raising public awareness on categories of information and how citizens can request it from the bureau.
Comprehensively, the workshop provided a unique and interactive platform where views were sought from the stakeholders and participants on the type of information people can access from ACB and how they can do that.
In his official opening remarks during the workshop, World Bank Malawi’s Public Sector Specialist Michael Roscitt, underscored the importance of access to information, describing it as a life-blood of good governance and democracy.
“It’s a win-win situation for the civil society and ACB to have tools in place which promote access to information,” said Roscitt.
On his part, ACB’s director of Corporate Affairs Agrey Mwale said the bureau was ready to embrace and mainstream innovative mechanisms to ensuring easy access to public information by the citizenry.
“This workshop is very important for the ACB and every person who wants to access public information from our bureau. It helped us to define and classify the type of information which people can access as well as designing the appropriate tools that will enhance information sharing and easy tracking of cases. This is first of its kind for the bureau. As ACB, we are grateful to CSAT and the World Bank for initiating this development,” said Mwale.
The Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) provided an insightful role to ensure that all the information tools designed during the workshop were in line with government of Malawi’s guidelines.
CSAT executive director Willy Kambwandira told the gathering that the workshop was key in improving ACB’s responsiveness as far as operationalization of the Access to Information Law was concerned at the bureau.
“There is hunger out there. People are hungry for vital public information which the ACB handles, including corruption cases. For example, people have a right to access information on certain cases to know their status.
Access to information is key in the fight against corruption. Therefore, we must improve on information storing and sharing. At the same time, people need to know how they can request information they need from the ACB. Therefore, this workshop is very important because it will help ACB to develop the necessary information tools,” said Kambwandira.
Participants also proposed vigorous strategies and resources to effect successful strategies to raising awareness of the Access to Information Law and the new information guide and manual on the information people can access from ACB.
“It’s important that people know exactly what type of information and how they can access it from the ACB,” remarked Chifundo Harawa from the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC).