The Parliamentary Committee on Media, Information and Communication and the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) have advised the Central Medical Stores Trust (CMST) to improve on compliance to Access to Information (ATI) Act.

The two institutions, speaking during CMSTs appearance before the committee on Thursday indicated that the trust has a lot to do in order to achieve compliance as per the law’s requirements.

Central Medical Stores Trust offices in Blantyre

It was revealed that CMST has not been submitting annual reports to the Minister of Information since the ATI was enacted in 2020.

According to chairperson of the committee, Susan Dossi, this needs to be rectified as soon as possible.

Said Dossi, “We have since asked the CMST to submit the current and all the reports since the ATI was enacted. We have also asked them to ensure that they start saving information files in a digital format because they are bound to lose information in the case of fire, water or any other accidents.”

Deputy director for Civil and Political rights, Chancy Kalolokesya who is also head of ATI Unit at MHRC, pointed out that as much as the website is live it lacks features that would make it easier for people to apply for accessing some information. 

Said Kalolokesya, “On their website there is a provision for access to information but when you click on it, there is nothing, it is empty. Even on the website there is no form for Access to Information application, there is not even the Act itself. Furthermore, the email address on the website is that of the chief executive officer not the information officer, that is an anomaly because people won’t be making enquiries to the CEO but rather the information officer.”

The chief executive officer for CMST, Chikaiko Chadzunda, said that the ATI is a new development as such the trust is still adjusting to ensuring that it fully complies with its requirements.

Kalolokesya however said that CMST is not entirely doing bad on ATI but implored the body to work on the areas that were raised by the commission and the Parliamentary Committee.

In his words there are actually other organisations such as the Lilongwe Water Board that are doing really fine in ATI and that CMST is on the right track to perfecting things in that regard.

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