New Era University

College of Engineering and Architecture

Statement of the Problem

Hypothesis/ Assumption
Significant of the Studies
Slope and Delimitation
Definition of Terms
(SAMPLES)

Evangelio, John Mark B.

CE PROJECT /CE-523C
 Statement of the Research Problem

The importance of FOI legislation in the democratic process has gained international
recognition. Countries around the world have come to realise the capacity of the legislation not
only in enhancing democracy but also in improving accountability, trust and open governance.
When Botswana adopted Vision 2016 the country was recognising that in order to sustain and
improve democracy, the governance process needed to be opened up more to external scrutiny.
This was done after realising that in a democracy, citizens are the main stakeholders in the
governance process and it was crucial that they be empowered to hold government accountable.
It therefore became apparent that Botswana needed to devise strategies which would enable
the varied information needs and uses of citizens to be met. The desire by the country to
legislate FOI as a part of its 2016 national aspirations was meant to improve access to official
information so as to empower citizens to better hold government to account. The question that
arises is whether Botswana needs FOI legislation. If it does, what are the shortcomings of its
current measures which allow citizens to gain access to official information? Further, if the
country needs the legislation, is it ready for it?

Botswana has various mechanisms ensuring that the public can gain access to
government information but these are limited in that citizens do not have comprehensive access
to most information held by government. Government determines the information which the
citizens can gain access to, it determines when they can gain access, as well as the format which
the information will be in. Citizens seeking to gain access to official information are at the mercy
of government since they lack a practicable right which enables them to easily gain access to
information, as and when they want to, without waiting for what government makes available.
The missing link appears to be the lack of FOI legislation which will enable citizens to gain a legal
and practicable right to access government-held information.

A review of the literature indicates that countries lacking FOI legislation are more likely to
be secretive, have their decision-making processes obscured from public scrutiny and become
breeding grounds for corruption.68 Pope observed that if democratic states are to flourish, the
public must be informed on the operations of government, policies drawn and how they are
being implemented.69 The same understanding is shared by Article 19, a global campaign for
free expression70 which argued that the absence of FOI legislation impairs democratic
development as the public is unable to “participate effectively in the process of government,
make informed choices about who should govern them and properly…scrutinise officials to
ensure corruption is avoided. Government officials…also fail to benefit from public
input which could…improve their decisions.”71 This is the current state in which Botswana is
caught.

However, access to information through FOI legislation presupposes access to among

others, records. Records, as sections 1.2.1-1.2.3 have shown are the byproducts of governance.
Other than support and document the governance process, records can provide citizens with
information and evidence, hence knowledge about how government operates. It is therefore
crucial that in as much as legislating FOI is a national aspiration which Botswana expects to have
realised by 2016, the efficacy of public sector records management should also be part of the
national aspirations. It is these records which once FOI has been legislated, will be relied upon to
provide citizens with information and evidence of the workings of government. Improving
democracy and accountability through FOI legislation should be premised on good public sector
records management.

Significance of the Study

The importance of this study lies in the fact that it attempts to situate FOI in Botswana by
evaluating the country’s preparedness for the law through comparing countries which have
enacted the legislation and others which have not done so. It also seeks to uncover the
relationships which exist between records management and FOI legislation. This study will make
a contribution to the advancement of knowledge into the relationships between the
management of records and FOI legislation as a consequence for evaluating Botswana’s
preparedness for FOI legislation. The study is original in its approach and setting, and the data it
uses to assess Botswana’s preparedness for FOI law and to unravel the relationships have never
been collected before. Also, the choice of the case study countries and comparing their access to
information and records management situations provides an original analysis. Access to
information in Botswana in relation to records management has not been studied closely before.
Therefore, through the employment of the methodology on which the study is founded
(discussed in Chapter 3) new insights into both records management and FOI will develop.

Literature reviews of records management and experience of professionals in the field

suggest that FOI implementation and utilisation of its provisions is premised on effective records
management practices.72 Records management in the Botswana public service, as shown above,
has undergone major changes to ensure improved service delivery. This study therefore seeks to
determine the state of record keeping in the Botswana public service and the extent to which
records management practices are ready for the introduction of FOI legislation. It also evaluates
the current access to information regimes of Botswana to determine if they warrant the
introduction of FOI legislation. In line with the belief emerging from literature and from
practitioners in both records management and FOI fields, the study also seeks to establish the
relationships between these two processes.

The study also seeks to fill in the gaps in the records management and FOI literature
which is mostly composed of general textbooks which explain and provide guidance on the
utilisation of records management or FOI techniques. Unlike those sources, this study offers a
resource which includes the evaluation of the broad spectrum of access to government
information measures and how these culminate in the need for FOI legislation. The study
provides an information resource on which future policy development of the management of
public sector records and FOI can be founded.

It is anticipated that this study will benefit public servants, records managers, archivists,
legislators, FOI activists, academics and others having an interest in access to information rights
and the management of public sector records. This will enable better formulation of information
management policy frameworks, including those facilitating access to government-held
information.

The study is also significant in that the government of Botswana and those of other
countries anticipating promulgating FOI legislation can learn through the experiences gained in
the various case study countries selected. These countries can also learn from the roadmaps
suggested in Chapter 8 which are intended to guide Botswana’s preparations for FOI. Countries
which have legislated for FOI may also adopt and develop certain issues arising from this study to
enhance the quality and effectiveness of their legislation. Even those countries who currently are
not thinking about legislating for FOI may find the study informative and helpful towards their
moral obligations of providing information to their citizens.

Hypothesis: FOI has the capacity to enhance responsible government

Governments which are thought to be responsible are normally taken to be democratic,

accountable and trusted. Of late, governments possessing these qualities are also taken to have
good records management to support these three aspects. Adding FOI legislation to a
government which possesses these qualities results in a governance process which is honest,
thereby enhancing the responsiveness and the responsibility ascribed to that government.
The previous section of this chapter has shown that underpinning democracy, accountability,
trust and records management is access to information. No matter the openness that a
government may attain, if FOI legislation is absent, this openness is limited only to the
information which government makes available through its discretion.

Hence, the responsiveness and the responsibility which may be ascribed to a government
will only be in tandem to the information it has found safe to release. By adding FOI legislation to
this environment, a government’s responsibility and responsiveness is enhanced. On the one
hand, access through FOI legislation enables citizens to be more abreast with the functions and
activities of government. And through this, citizens are better placed to contribute to the
execution and to the improvements of the functions and activities of government. On the other
hand, government is likely to receive information from citizens which can influence and enhance
the governance process. Governance is not static and variable information from citizens can aid
in shaping its direction and contribute to its maturity. A responsible government predicated on
FOI legislation also has the capacity to build insight into varied societal, political and economic
expectations. Not only does government become more responsible through FOI but it is also
seen as honest in its undertaking of public affairs. It is honest because it is accountable and the
accounts can be verified through a liberal and defined access to information.
 Importance of the Studies

All organisations, public or private, rely on records in their daily operations. Records are
the corporate memory of organisations in that they support daily business undertakings,
facilitate decision making and policy formulation, and are in themselves a part of an
organisation’s endeavour to carry out its business.2 Records provide information and evidence
of the functions carried out and are thus critical to protecting organisations and their interests
during litigation and other legal challenges; enabling them to conform with accountability
requirements, and comply with the prescriptions of all government statutes including access to
information.3 Roberts of the State Records Authority in New South Wales in Australia identified
three domains in which records are essential.

The business domain: organisations create and maintain records to support their daily
business needs and expectations. Planning the direction which a certain business process has to
follow relies on records, and executing these plans results in the creation of more records and
further reliance on those already in existence; recruiting and retaining employees to facilitate
expected business processes requires the creation and maintenance of records. In fact, almost
everything that an organisation does relies on the availability and utility of records.

The accountability domain: accountability within and outside organisations relies on the
exchange of information from someone who has to account to the one holding the account.
Records capture information, some of which is indispensable to accountability. Accountability
therefore, depends on there being information and evidence relating to the account that is being
made. In this respect, organisations keep records so that they may produce informed accounts
of their business processes. In the event that an account is queried, records can be accessed to
clarify whatever is being questioned. The cultural domain: although records are created to
support and document business processes, some have values other than those for which they
were created. These records, particularly those archival in nature, have historical and cultural
nuances which make them valuable to the society to which they relate.
 Scope and Delimitation

The application of the Grounded theory approach has enabled this study to critically
analyse Botswana’s preparedness for the adoption of FOI legislation. Consistent with Grounded
Theory, this study was not based on any preconceived theory neither did it seek to confirm
certain theoretical conclusions. Rather, the study worked towards the generation and
application of a theory which explains the relationships which records management and FOI
legislation share. The same theoretical understanding can also be used to evaluate a country’s
preparedness for the adoption of FOI legislation.

The use of Grounded Theory in this study has allowed flexible explorations to discern
Botswana’s preparedness for the legislation. Through it, the study has been able to concisely
identify and interrogate the relationships which exist between records management and FOI
legislation. The flexibility of the application has enabled the researcher to interact with the
various respondents who are working in records management or FOI environments; those who
have their functions impacted upon by both records management and FOI; those who campaign
for FOI and others who use the rights the legislation bestows on citizens; and those whose
countries are planning to legislate FOI.

Essentially, the use of the Grounded Theory allowed the study to build inductive
reasoning and understanding of Botswana’s preparedness for FOI legislation as well as to
decipher the relationships between records management and FOI legislation. As mentioned in
section 3.6 the inductive reasoning and understanding was brought about by the fact that when
the study began, the researcher did not know all the relevant research questions for a study
which sought to evaluate a country’s preparedness for FOI through comparisons and
explorations of countries which possesses different qualities. As a result of this intricacy, it was
also difficult to arrive at a defined sampling frame before the study began. It was equally
complex for the study to preconceive hypotheses which it could explore. By employing the
theoretical sampling technique complemented by snowballing, the study was able to identify
respondents and through interactions with them succinct research questions were developed
including the theoretical premise of the relationships and Botswana’s preparedness. The
flexibility of the Grounded Theory application allowed for this process since the study was not
tied down to any rigid research questions, definite sample or a preconceived theory to test.

Arguably, this study could have adopted a quantitative methodology. Such a

methodology would have had defined research questions, a sampling frame and a theory or
hypotheses to test before the study commenced. Hence, the quantitative approach would have
shifted the study from being inductive to deductive with emphasis on measuring variables in
terms of quantity and frequencies so as to arrive at statistical explanations of Botswana’s
readiness for FOI legislation.
 Definition of Terms

Legislation- Laws, considered collectively

Queried- Ask a question about something, especially in order to express one’s doubt about it or
to check its validity or accuracy
Endeavour- Try hard to do or achieve something
Archivist- A person who maintains and is in charge of archives
Intricacy- The quality of being intricate