All private and public bodies have until 30 June to submit reports to the Information Regulator (IR) on requests they have received to access their records in the 2022/23 financial year.
This is the first time the IR has asked private bodies to submit this type of report.
In terms of section 32 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA), the information officer of every public body must submit on an annual basis a report to the IR in respect of access to information requests received and processed by the public body.
Section 83(4) of PAIA empowers the IR to request the heads of private bodies to provide it with reports about requests for access to records of the private body.
The objective of the submissions is to determine whether public and private bodies are receiving and recording requests for information, the IR said.
The data from the reports will provide a picture of the status of compliance with PAIA and its implementation in public and private bodies.
The report requires bodies to indicate whether the requests for information that were received were responded to within the timeframes stipulated in PAIA, and whether there were any internal appeals and the outcome of those appeals.
The reports will help the IR to ascertain the use of PAIA by members of the public when it comes to access to information and help to measure or indicate the levels of awareness of PAIA from those who request information and public and private bodies.
The report must be submitted through the IR’s online portal.
Enquiries relating to compliance with section 32 and 83(4) of PAIA should be sent to Mr Ntsumbedzeni Nemasisi at NNemasisi@infoRegulator.org.za or Ms Nokwanda Molefe at Nmolefe@inforegulator.org.za.
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Unfortunately the Information Regulator is the source of much confusion.
Its not public companies, but public bodies (public sector) that must provide the PAIA reports.
Private sector entities are invited by the Regulator to submit reports. If they have the information, and are not concerned about possible further scrutiny, they can submit the information. But most companies probably do not have a data subject request management system which is a requirement of POPIA. This may raise questions regarding the source an reliability of the data subject access request information.