The Working Group on Institutional and Public Sector Reform under the National Council for Building a Better Fiji has noted that no laws have been enacted to ensure public rights to access to official documents of government and its agencies.

The Working Group met yesterday and while discussing the Freedom of Information paper it noted that despite the 1997 constitution being in effect for ten years, such laws are yet to be enacted as Article 174 of the constitution requires that the parliament enact a law to give members of the public access to such official documents.

The Group said it did not take a decision on the paper but discussed the pro's and con's of enacting and implementing such a law.

The Working Group said it considers that information is critical to knowing what the government, the public service and other public bodies are doing on behalf of the people and it is the right of the citizens to scrutinize the actions of political leaders, public officials and government agencies and assess their performance.

It said accountability and good governance can only be assured if members of the public have access to information held by the government.

The report will be given to the Task Team on Governance and the Working Group has recommended that the Freedom of Information Laws be implemented as soon as possible.