AIPPA provisions Issue Section 8(1) Time limits to process i. Requests for information must be request: dealt with within a reasonable i. This section states that requests amount of time. for information must be given ii. Delays in finalising requests for not later than 30 days of information must be receiving the request for communicated to the applicant. information. ii. In terms of Section 11, this period may be extended by another 30 days with the permission of the Zimbabwe Media Commission. iii. This means in practice information requests can be dealt with for up to 60 days Section 12 Transfer of Request: No issues arise i. The head of a public body may transfer a received information request to another public entity better positioned to respond to a request for information. ii. This transfer has to happen within 10 days and the entity that the request for information is transferred to has to respond to the request within 30 days of receiving it FOI Bill proposed provisions i. Section 8(1) states that requests for general information must be finalised within 21 days of receiving the information request. ii. This period may be extended by an additional 14 days in terms of Section 9 of the Bill. This means that in theory information requests can be finalised after 35 days. iii. Section 8(2) states that requests for information that is necessary to safeguard the liberty or life of a person, such information has to be released within 48 hours of making the request. iv. The information officer will hold on to the requested information until full payment of the charged assistance fees. i. The Bill is silent on this ability to transfer requests from one entity to another. ii. In its current form, this means an applicant who submits a request for information at a wrong or less relevant entity would have to resubmit their information request at the correct entity on his or her own. Recommendations The reduction in the processing times for requests from 60 days under AIPPA to 35 days under the current Bill is welcome. ii. There is need to work on the issue of “Deemed Refusals” set out in Section 10 of the Bill. iii. Deemed refusals refer to instances when an information officer does not give any response to a request for information after the lapse of 21 days or 35 days in instances where such information officer requests an extension of time. iv. A mechanism must be put in place to ensure that even in instances of deemed refusals reasons for the refusals are given. i. i. There should be a maximum time limit within which requests are transferred from one entity to another. This provision might have been erroneously excluded from the final version of the gazetted Bill. ii. It is recommended that the gazetted Bill also adds a provision for the transferability of information requests from one entity to another. 3