00:00Penang's freedom of information enactment is still not being properly enforced, with government agencies unaware of their duties under the law, says a transparency advocate.
00:12Centre for Independent Journalism Executive Director Washla Naidoo said the Penang Island City Council's failure to meet a statutory deadline for responding to a request for information exposes a lack of adherence to the law.
00:26Under access to information rules made pursuant to Penang's Freedom of Information Enactment 2010, the designated officer in each state government department or agency must respond to an applicant within 14 working days.
00:40Washla said the Penang government must provide training for all public bodies and officers, adding that public interest information should be made available without lengthy FOI requests.
00:51She was commenting on a rebuke leveled at MBPP by the state's Freedom of Information Appeals Board after it failed to respond to a request within the prescribed deadline.
01:02Meanwhile, Houyi Zhen, a research analyst at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network at Sunway University, pointed out that FOI applicants have the right to appeal if their request is wrongly denied.
01:14He also said that Penang's FOI enactment suffers from a significant flaw in that it does not allow appeals to a court of law unlike FOI laws in other countries.
