across the bar

 

The deadline is fast approaching for businesses to submit their Promotion of Access to Information Act manuals. Should a business fail to submit their manuals on or before 31 December 2011 they may face the risk of a fine and/or imprisonment.

In terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act(“the Act”) all former and existing  sole proprietorships, partnerships, companies and close corporations are obliged to prepare and publish manuals which explain to the public what records that business holds and how to access those records.

The manual is a roadmap of the business and is commonly referred to as a Section 51 manual.

The Act refers to the head of a business which means it is either the natural person in the case of a sole proprietorship, a partner in the case of a partnership, the CEO of a company or the member of a close corporation, who is solely responsible for ensuring compliance.

Generally, the manual should include:

1.    The business postal, street and email address as well as a telephone and fax number;

2.    The description of available records generated by the business stating those which are automatically available and those that are available on request;

3.    Details outlining the request procedure;

4.    Details of the head of the business i.e. CEO, partner, managing member;

5.    Remedies available if a person’s request for information from the business is not met;

6.    Details facilitating a request for access to a record.

The Section 51 manual must be submitted to the Human Rights Commission head office. A copy of the manual may be submitted electronically but must be followed by a hard copy of the original.