Training Information Officers (MO0002)

Designating and training information officers within public agencies and institutions
From January 2019 to June 2019
Lead implementing agency/actor
Ministry of Administration Reform and Civil Service (MRAFP)
Commitment description
What is the public problem that the commitment will address?
Article 13 of the new Law on the Right to Access Information articulates the need to designate of points of contacts responsible for receiving, reviewing and providing the requested information, and assisting the applicants in this regard. For the time being, government bodies and public institutions do not have contact points in charge of providing information in line with the Law on the Right of Access to Information. The lack of points of contact would hinder the proper application of the law and the enjoyment of the right to access to information, as requests for information will remain unanswered.
What is the commitment?
This commitment consists of: Defining the criteria for designating the information officers and their substitutes based on the human resources and size of each government body Developing a training plan for the persons in charge of delivering information Developing course units for the training Drafting an official letter issued by the Head of Government calling on government bodies and public institutions to designate the information officers and their substitutes. Conducting a training programme in collaboration with civil society for the designated information officers. The implementation of this commitment will: Guarantee that requests for information are managed appropriately Ensure that government bodies react positively to applicants’ request for information Ensure the effectiveness of rules to exercise the right to access information
How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem?
The designation and training of information officers and their substitutes will help government bodies and public institutions interact with applicants’ request for information through the identification of a recognised, well-trained contact point. The latter will respond to the applications, thus guaranteeing the effectiveness of the Law on the Right to Access Information.
Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values?
Designing the information officers, tasked with receiving, reviewing and delivering the requested information, will ensure the effectiveness of the law to access information, thus having a positive impact on citizens’ daily lives. The information officers shall check the eligibility of requests and deliver only publicly accessible information. If necessary, they shall assist applicants in preparing their requests. This will better help the public access the requested information
Additional information
Related commitments: Commitment 1 Commitment 3 Commitment 4 Commitment 6
Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable
Defining the criteria for designating the information officers and their substitutes based on the human resources and size of each government body
January 2019 March 2019
Developing a training plan for the persons in charge of delivering information
January 2019 March 2019
Developing course units for the training
January 2019 March 2019
Drafting a circular letter issued by the Head of Government calling on government bodies and public institutions to designate the information officers and their substitutes
January 2019 March 2019
Conducting a training programme in collaboration with civil society for the designated information officers.
June 2019 June 2019
Contact point details
Name of contact point (project manager)
Mr Hatim MOURADI
Position/department
Head of Division of Innovation and Modernisation Programmes / Ministry of Administration Reform and Civil Service (MRAFP)
Email and telephone
h.mouradi@mmsp.gov.ma / 00212 5 37 67 99 61
Other actors involved
Government bodies Public institutions Any legal person under public law
Civil society organisations Non-governmental organisations

Commitment 2: Designate and Train Public Information Officers

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

“The implementation of this commitment will:

• Guarantee that requests for information are managed appropriately
• Ensure that government bodies react positively to applicants’ request for information
• Ensure the effectiveness of rules to exercise the right to access information”

Milestones:

• Defining the criteria for designating the information officers and their substitutes based on the human resources and size of each government body
• Developing a training plan for the persons in charge of delivering information;
• Developing course units for the training
• Drafting a circular letter issued by the Head of Government calling on government bodies and public institutions to designate the information officers and their substitutes.
• Conducting a training program in collaboration with civil society for the designated information officers."

Start Date: January 2019

End Date: June 2019

Editorial Note: the commitment description provided above is an abridged version of the commitment text, please see the full action plan here: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/morocco-action-plan-2018-2020/

Context and objectives

Article 13 of the new law 31.13 on the right to access information specifies that all institutions covered ought to designate a person to receive and process access to information requests. ^[19] According to the point of contact responsible for this commitment Hatim Mouradi, currently, civil servants are not aware of the law, its application, or how to answer citizens' requests. Civil servants are also constrained by what they perceive to be professional secrets and the fear of sanctions if they divulge information contrary to guidelines. ^[20] The objective of this commitment is to set the criteria for selecting staff who will receive information requests, provide training on processing requests, and to prompt all governmental departments to have a designated officer through an official circular from the Head of the Government. As of now, the Ministry of Interior has sent a bylaw and internal memo instructing all administrations under its purview to designate a person in charge of enforcing the laws' provisions. This commitment complements Commitments 1, 3 and 4 in this action plan.

According to Hatim Mouradi, Head of Division of Innovation and Modernization Programmes, Ministry of Administration Reform and Civil Service, civil servants currently overseeing responses to information requests are not familiar with the law. ^[21] Requests to have access to information are often turned down because civil servants consider the information to be a 'professional secret,’ At the local level, the Ministry of Interior has not yet determined who will oversee the delivery of information. There are about 52,4000 civil servants in total and 110,000 at the local or regional level. ^[22] Therefore, communicating procedures will involve many trainings and awareness raising is expected to continue after the completion of this commitment.

This commitment is relevant to the OGP value of access to information in that it seeks to provide officers with training on how to process information requests. The commitment is also relevant to the OGP value of civic participation in that the government will collaborate with civil society and UNESCO to design a training program for information officers. In this way, the commitment changes the government’s traditional role of public service provider and civil society’s traditional role of recipient.

This commitment can be verified by looking at whether the trainings' program, criteria and units will be developed. Concerning the commitment’s level of specificity, there is still room for improvement. For instance, the number and scope of the trainings is not specified. There is no way to track the number of trainers that will be reached through this commitment, or how many civil servants will be trained on the law once the commitment is over. Also, there is no indication of what is considered to be a minimum threshold of knowledge about the law that can be used to hold civil servants and persons in charge of delivering the information accountable.

This commitment has a moderate potential to facilitate citizens' access to government-held information. The commitment would provide all administrations an appropriately designated officer that would process and respond to citizens' information requests. Before the advent of the law, no such officers existed and there was no consensus on the specific procedures to follow to respond to access to information requests. According to Hatim Mouradi, the commitment will provide a guide to all the administrations, civil servants, and citizens on how to process demands. The guide was delineated in an internal roadmap dating from May 2018. The roadmap has five strategic axes: designating the commission on the right to access information, the POCs in charge of processing information, training the members of the commission and organizing study trips to countries implementing similar reforms, and training officers. ^[23]

Mr. Mouradi highlights that this commitment seeks to enhance civil servants' knowledge on the law so that all government entities that receive requests of access to information will be able to carry them out. The commitment also includes training for the commission in charge of access to information. The CNDP (Commission Nationale de Contrôle de la Protection des Données à Caractère Personnel) will forward information requests that raise privacy questions to the secretariat of the commission for an opinion.

Training on the ATI law will need to reach a significant number of civil servants to be effective. Information officers and civil society members who are trained are expected to further distribute information on the law. Mr. Abderrahim Foukahi, a representative of the CSO REMDI explains jurists and lawyers will be in charge of submitting requests, whose understanding of the laws' inner workings is minimal at best. He adds that lawyers' lack of understanding of the international legal standards on the question makes them ill-equipped to forward these requests. ^[24]

Youness Benmoumen, founder of the CSO Tafra, explains that the commitment could have a greater impact if there is a proper selection process for information officers. He further adds that trainings should seek to encourage civil servants to respond to requests, emphasize their obligations to citizens, and outline the safeguards that exist to address any risks in sharing information. If completed, the commitment will encourage civil servants to respect the law. Mr. Benmoumen adds that data should be shared in useable formats (such as Excel sheets rather than PDFs) and searchable for the data to aid the work of CSOs. ^[25]

Appointing and training information officers is an essential step towards fully implementing the access to information law. If completed, this commitment is likely to increase citizens' ability to access previously inaccessible government information. However, the number of officers to be trained is considerable, and the commitment does not mention that it will train all officers in all parts of the country and does not specify whether the budget for such a large-scale training program is available. And if there were a budget available, there is no mention of its current amount.

Next steps:

In implementing this commitment and continuing access to information reforms, the IRM recommends that implementors consider the following:

• This commitment should be given priority and should be continued in future action plans, as it furthers the core open government value of transparency across the whole of government. Furthermore, the sheer number of civil servants is considerable, and cultivating an institutional culture of openness and information sharing requires sustained efforts.
• Training for civil servants and information officers should emphasize their obligations towards citizens to disclose information and the legal changes should provide safeguards if civil servants incorrectly disclose information.
• Future similar commitments could increase specificity by clarifying the number of trainings, the intended recipients, and the role of civil society.
• Future access to information reforms could focus on establishing a transparent process for denied information requests and redress mechanisms for citizens whose requests are denied.

2. Designate and Train Public Information Officers

Substantial:

This commitment is related to commitments 1 and 6, as is part of the general framework to support the implementation of law 31.13 on the right to access information. [13] Article 13 of law 31.13 specifies that all institutions covered should designate an individual to receive and process access to information requests. [14] The objective of this commitment is to set the criteria for selecting staff who will receive information requests, to provide training on processing requests, and to prompt all government departments to designate an officer through an official circular from the Head of the Government. [15]

Hatim Mouradi from the Department of Administrative Reform of the Ministry of Economy, Finance, and Administrative Reform [16] explained that the Minister issued a circular in late 2018 [17] that defined the criteria for appointment and invited all relevant government bodies to nominate an access to information officer. Another circular letter from 2020 [18] led to a network of access to information officers under the supervision of the Department for Administrative Reform. According to the publication on Morocco’s open government portal, this network aims to mobilize and strengthen the skills of its members and to continuously support them in the implementation of this law. [19]

Mouradi added that the Department, in partnership with UNESCO, organized two two-day training sessions for the trainers of the access to information officers in June 2019 [20] and July 2019, [21] in which a total of 55 trainers participated. [22] According to the self-assessment, another training session on proactive publication for access to information officers was organized in March 2020. [23] As a result of these efforts, according to the government’s report, 1,148 access to information officers in central government bodies have been appointed and trained. [24] The government notes that the number of access to information officers had increased to 1,914 by 20 September 2021. [25]

Mouradi added that the launch of the access to information platform chafafiya.ma in March 2020 also served as a stimulus for the appointment of access to information officers. [26] Currently, according to Mouradi, all ministries have appointed access to information officers. [27] However, the nomination of access to information officers in public institutions remains a challenge. A full list of the appointed officers has not been compiled, since each public body publishes a list on its own website. Through access to information requests, the civil society organization Sim Sim obtained a list of appointed officers, which it compiled on its platform Article27, [28] allowing citizens to find the access to information officers for more than 1,800 institutions, including some local government bodies.

Zineb Bouzar from Sim Sim explained that their project showed that not every institution has appointed an officer, especially local government institutions. [29] As for the trainings, she doubts how efficient they will be, since some officers were unsatisfied with them and concerned about the multiple exceptions and restrictions in the access to information law, which holds them accountable for any violation. [30] Mouradi explained that a future effort for the continuation of this commitment would be the training of local government bodies, which have not been covered up to this point. [31] As future steps, the self-assessment points to the capacity building of access to information officers through the established network. [32]