She said citizens and taxpayers had the right to know how prudently and efficiently public funds were being utilized, and for what purposes. She said this could only be done with guaranteed access to information. “It is equally for the benefit of those wielding public authority to share this information to promote transparency and accountability, thereby seeing a positively growing Zambian democracy.”4 Norwegian Ambassador to Zambia Arve Ofstad said it is important for citizens to freely access information unless there are very good reasons to hide it. “In our opinion, public access to information is very important and it can be separated from the issues of leakages of state secrets. In my country, we have a law which protects secret acts that are necessary to be kept secret. But we also have access to information act and even me as an ambassador, I am often asked by journalists in my own country, for them to have access to the correspondence which I have with my ministry and I have to give it, unless there are very good reasons to hide it.”5 MISA Zambia added its voice too. The following were the proposals made by MISA to the Government in the hope that the ATI Bill would be enacted before the 2016 general elections; 1. Government should indicate (through a roadmap) a timeline of the processes leading up to the presentation of the bill with an estimated timeframe for public accountability. 2. Government should circulate the revised version of the draft ATI bill to allow for review and participation by members of the public, pressure groups, and other stakeholders. This is important because the bill is for the people, the citizens of this country who should be involved throughout the process. 3. Citizens must begin to demand for the immediate enactment of the ATI bill. There must be creation of understanding on the essence of the ATI bill to offset the existing misconceptions. 4. Government should not politicise the ATI bill; there should be concrete assurance from the officers concerned to ensure that there is no chance of U-turning at any stage. A social contract should possibly be signed. 6 It is clear therefore, that there is lack of clarity on the ATI bill owing to the several U-turns and negative pronouncements issued. Between 2011 and 2015 alone, the ATI bill process has stalled on several occasions hence the need to ensure the trend does not carry on about thirteen years since the bill was mooted in 2002. 4 Post Newspaper 15.05.15 5 Post Newspaper 20.05.15 6 The Post Newspaper 27.04.15 11