Access to Information Monitoring Tool: Report from a Five-Country Pilot Study

This pilot survey monitoring freedom of information was conducted in Armenia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Peru and South Africa, and involved the submission of 100 information requests to 18 different public institutions. On average only 35 percent of requests for information were fulfilled and 36 percent of requests submitted resulted in tacit or "mute" refusals. Interviews with government officials revealed a number of common obstacles in enforcing FOI laws, including a lack of political will at senior levels to encourage transparency, inadequate information management, insufficient training of public officials, and an excess of bureaucratic obstacles to timely information release.