MALAWI n = 20 Yes No h) The contact details of specific public officials? Partial Additional Information • i) A mechanism to request and receive a response to electronic messages and requests for information? • Total Score: 12/20 CATEGORY 2: REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION The following questions were sent to Blantyre Water Board: 1. Blantyre District continues to experience erratic water supply in most locations; what long-term plans does the Board have to deal with the problem? 2. People argue that the water supply system in the City dates back to the colonial era and nothing much has been done to update the infrastructure. What is your comment on this? 3. Illegal water connection is often considered as a challenge in the City. What is the Board doing to deal with this problem? 4. What are some of the key projects the Board is working on or implementing to improve sanitation along the Mudi River and at locations such as Ndirande and Chilimba in the city? 5. What are some of the challenges that BWB is facing in its efforts to improve water supply in the City? n = 20 1. Is there an official designated to take and respond to information requests? Yes No Partial • Additional Information Public Relations Manager 2. Did the institution reply within 21 days? • 3. Did the institution respond to the request for information? • 4. Does the authority publish their procedures for dealing with information requests? 5. Did the institution provide all of the information requested? • 6. Did the institution provide written reasons for the refusal of information? • 7. Did the institution disclose information about its operations, budgets, structure etc. 8. Did the authority provide information without questioning the aims and motivations of the applicant? • 9. Did the institution acknowledge your request for information within 7 days? • 10. Was the information received clear and understandable? • • The Board has a “FAQs” section on its website which can be used to request for guidance for procedures on information requests. • On the website No feedback was provided. Total Score: 4/20 3. Central Medical Stores Trust Category 1: Website www.cmst.mw The Central Medical Stores Trust website contains the following on its page: About Us; Functions; Procurement; Services; Vacancies; The Catalogues; FAQs; Contact Us; and Webmail. Most of these pages have drop-down menus displaying sub-pages, which have a reasonable amount of content, with no broken links. The webpage however, contains information without dates and this made it difficult for the researcher to determine how up-to-date the information was. The website visitor has to read the whole content and may in some cases be able to identify the date of the information. 15