TANZANIA RESEARCH CONCLUSION The culture of secrecy among public officials still persists despite efforts by local and international stakeholders to ensure it is done away with. It is amazing how one can offer information on one platform and completely deny it on another. From the research findings, you will see that there is plenty of information provided on websites but when it comes to written requests or physical visits, the scenario is totally different. A lot still needs to be done in terms of creating awareness of the importance of opening up public institutions to the general public. For the past five years, during the time this study has been conducted, there have been changes in the way public offices operate. There hasn’t been consistency in the winners or losers. This means that there have been both positive and negative developments. For example, the study revisited the most open and most secretive institutions of last year’s study to see if there have been any changes after one year. The study found that there have been serious improvements in website developments, but they have fared badly in other areas. Generally, the findings for the past five years have been an agent of change in public offices in terms of how they behave towards information that is deemed ‘public’. It is our sincere hope that these findings will continue to inspire positive changes towards greater accountability and transparency. THE MOST SECRETIVE PUBLIC INSTITUTION IN TANZANIA The two lowest scoring institutions were the Judiciary of Tanzania with 14 points, and the Ministry of Health, who scored 17 points. Interestingly, both have their website up-to-date and one can access information easily, but they did very poorly in responding to written requests, and at the Ministry for Health and Social Welfare, for instance, the registry unit staff were unfriendly to clients. According to the findings and the total score obtained, the recipient of this year’s Golden Padlock Award for the Most Secretive Public Institution is the Judiciary of Tanzania. THE MOST OPEN PUBLIC INSTITUTION IN TANZANIA In this category the research was interested in transparency, responsiveness, client services, and openness of institutions to the general public. Of all of the eight participants, the National Bureau of Statistics scored a total of 33 points out of 40, outscoring the 2013 winner the Ministry of Energy and Minerals by 11 points. The latter performed well in the website evaluation but performed poorly in the written request category, failing to respond to the researcher’s requests. 104 We are proud to announce that the 2014 recipient of the Golden Key Award for the Most Open Public Institution in Tanzania is the National Bureau of Statistics. RECOMMENDATIONS From this study, MISA recommends short training or capacity building sessions for public officers, especially at the reception and registry units. These need to be helpful to clients visiting their public offices; it was observed that some staff were rude and unfriendly when asked for information. It is time that each public institution has a client service charter to ensure the public is served with respect and their requests addressed, regardless of other factors. Public officials also need to understand the content of the charter and be accountable, and the public made aware of their rights and responsibilities when seeking information from public offices. As our country is working to attract more investors, it is high time that public officials uphold professionalism and are ready to ‘listen’ to clients visiting their offices.