Hi Om,
On 09/09/2015 09:30 PM, OMDEEP GOKHOOL wrote:
>
> (b) A Freedom of Information Act will definitely fit within what the
> MIU is interested in, for example on the 8th of September Mr Ish was
> looking for the MNIC act which was unavailable on their website[1], same
> for the "communiques" which you could not find on the government
> portal[2]. Having a Freedom of Information act will give us the right to
> request certain informations from public authorities. A second example I
> would like to take is the clouds of doubts still lingering around, about
> the New Identity Cards[3], having a FOI act will obliged public
> authorities to publish certain informations about their activities.
>
The Mauritius NIC Act is not a "secretive" document for which one needs
a FOI Act to get hands upon. When I emailed the Civil Status Division
about the NIC Act, it was in a specific context, where I was expecting
to find the document on their website, at the same time I noticed they
have a link to mnic.mu which does not work.
Nevertheless, to help you all while staying in the context on the
National ID Card, a good use of FOI would be asking for information
pertaining to the various tenders allocated in the project. Most of us
know that the ID Card computer systems and software have been supplied
by Singaporean companies. However, there are other tenders pertaining to
various tasks (marketing, IT supplies, etc) that went to local
companies. Are those information public?
Regarding costs for the destruction of biometric data from the ID Card
database, I read the following in the press [1],
Quant aux frais que cette démarche a engendrés, le ministre de la
Technologie, de la Communication et de l’Innovation a déclaré que le
gouvernement a fait de son mieux pour les minimiser.
The cost breakdown can help independent analysts draw better conclusions
about the handling of the project. It will also facilitate the job of
journalists seeking to write a "paper" on the subject.
What I stated here is a mere example, but once we have a FOI Act, it
becomes easier for the information-seeking citizen to ask for details.
Currently, in order to get information from the authority, one has to
wait that someone asks the question in the parliament :)
[1]
http://www.lexpress.mu/article/268095/carte-didentite-empreintes-digitales-947-000-citoyens-detruites
Regards,
--
Ish Sookun
Received on Wed Sep 09 2015 - 18:53:45 PST