Acting chair of the Access to Information Authority Adnen Lassoued, on Wednesday, stressed the need to speed up the renewal of the body's partial membership, in accordance with the provisions of organic law no. 2016-22 on the right of access to information. Lassoued was speaking as he met with Parliament Speaker Brahim Bouderbala, in the presence of MP Assistant to the Speaker in charge of relations with the judiciary and constitutional and national bodies. He stressed the need to speed up the process of re-electing the body's president from the category of administrative judges in order to fill the vacancy in this post. The position of representative of the National Authority for Personal Data Protection (INPDP) is also still vacant in the composition of the authority's board. When it was set up in 2017, the access to information body was chaired by administrative judge Imed Hazgui, who left the post in February 2020 to join the government as Minister of National Defence. On another level, Adnen Lassoued, who is Judge of the judiciary, presented the Speaker with the annual report of the Access to Information Authority for 2020-2021, which encompasses proposals and recommendations to further strengthen the right of access to information. Bouderba expressed the parliament's willingness to honour its role of filling the vacancy in the position of chair of the body and renewing half of its board «in order to continue its mission.» The body is responsible for establishing participatory democracy and good governance, combatting corruption and promoting a culture of citizenship.» According to the 203-page report published on the authority's website, 1,094 access to information requests were submitted to the authority between 2020 and 2021. More than 700 requests were settled, according to the report, which also states that 841 public bodies affected by the organic law on the right of access to information were audited during the period covered by the report.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse