BOTSWANA SUMMARY Organisation Website Request for information Total score 1. Botswana Police Service 6 11 17 2. Botswana Post 12 10 22 3. Botswana Power Corporation 15 4 19 4. Botswana Qualification Authority 17 18 35 5. Botswana Unified Revenue Service 15 6 21 6. Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security 10 15 25 7. Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry 17 6 23 8. Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board 15 16 31 9. Statistics Botswana 14 6 20 17 6 23 10. Water Utilities Corporation RESEARCH CONCLUSION The report reflects an environment that is still lacking in transparency and general access to information. Organisations that scored well in this survey are those that provide a fair balance between a request for information and their online presence. THE MOST SECRETIVE PUBLIC ORGANISATION IN BOTSWANA The Botswana Police Service has only single page on the government’s website portal. Although they did supply the requested information, they did not do so timeously. Of the public organisations that did not score well, many cited the COVID-19 situation as the reason for delayed/ or lack of response. The delay was also attributed to the intermittent lockdowns as some of the information could only be received from officials who were subjected to lockdown. Therefore, the winner of the Golden Padlock Award is the Botswana Police Service. The researcher was also constrained from physically following up the information requests due to the movement restrictions. Therefore, electronic platforms were relied upon. THE MOST OPEN PUBLIC ORGANISATION IN BOTSWANA It is also notable that no organisation flatly refused to supply the requested information but instead, some delayed their response, relayed the request to other offices (even other departments in some cases) or kept giving assurances. Botswana Qualification Authority has an updated website and is active on social media. They supplied the full information requested proactively and timeously. It is also worth noting that the political unwillingness to provide a law ensuring access to information is a major barrier to openness. With the existence of a repressive law like Media Practitioner Act, information practitioners such as journalists self-censor themselves lest they become victims to the law. RETURN TO CONTENTS PAGE Therefore, the winner of the Golden Key Award is the Botswana Qualification Authority. 22