Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1696587665842.pdf (Vanuatu)
Website Proactive Assessment assessing the proactive publication of government websites REPORT Right To Information Unit Department of Strategic Planning, Policy & Aid Coordination Office of the Prime Minister April 2019.

Introduction This assessment of government agency websites aims to establish a visual baseline of Section 6 of the Right To information Act Section 6.
This section outlines the order for agencies to publish 15 categories of information about their respective agencies to be available to the public, furthermore this categories of information must be updated regularly and in a timely manner.
The ndings of this assessment are meant to identify the opportunities and areas for agencies to strengthen on their websites so that they reect Section 6, the ndings will also assist the Publications Ofcer of the Right To Information Unit to provide effective support to agencies and to monitor and evaluate Section 6 on a regular basis.

The 15 Categories of Information Listed below are the 15 categories of information of Section 6 of the Right To Information Act.

a.
a.

A description of its structure and functions.

b.

A list of the entities falling under it including their location, opening hours, and subjects handled.

c. The title ,business address and contact details of the Principal Administrative Officer.

d. The particulars of its finances.

k. The particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with or representation by the members of the public in relation to the formulation of its policy or implementation of its policies.
l. The procedure to be followed in making an application for information, the particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information, including the working hours of a library or reading room, if maintained for e. A directory of its officers and employees and a brief description of the functions and powers of its officers.

public use.

f. The procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability.
g. A simple guide to its information-keeping systems.

h. A statement of the types and forms of information and categories of documents that are held by it or used by its officers and employees in the discharge of its functions.

i. j.

Relevant details concerning any services it provides directly to members of the public.
The content of all decisions or policies it has adopted which affect the public, along with the reasons for them, any authoritative interpretations of them and any important background material.
m. Any direct application or complaints mechanisms available to members of the public regarding acts or a failure to act by that Government agency or relevant private entity, along with a summary of any applications, complaints or other direct actions by members of the public and that Government agency or relevant private entity’s response.

n. The names, designations, contact details and other particulars of its Right to Information Officers.

o.
o.

Such other information deemed necessary in the public interest or as may be prescribed by this Act or any other Act.
gov.vu vpmu.gov.vu vancitizenship.g… biosecurity.gov.vu dol.gov.vu vmgd.gov.vu doe.gov.vu ndmo.gov.vu environment.gov… mjsc.gov.vu dwa.gov.vu moet.gov.vu immigration.gov.… vqa.edu.vu ura.gov.vu vanuatuculturalc… vanla.org ombudsman.gov.… vnpf.com.vu vartc.vu vfsc.vu vcci.com.vu trr.vu cooperative.gov.vu sheries.gov.vu police.gov.vu vnso.gov.vu customsinlandre… malffb.gov.vu forestry.gov.vu tourism.gov.vu ogcio.gov.vu dfot.gov.vu Number of Agencies with Websites Of the 58 agencies that are under the Order of the RTI Act, 34 of them have websites that were online at the time of this assessment.
59% 41% Have Website No Website Bar Chart Summary The bar chart on the left shows the percentage of each of the 34 agencies with online websites.

Apart from the Right To Information Unit's website (rti.gov.vu) the Utilities Regulatory Regulatory (ura.gov.vu) had a 53% score which places it ahead of all the other website.
The low scores of 7% do not mean that websites have no information at all, the websites have a lot of information on them but the most of those information would fall under only one or two categories thus the low scores, Proactive Target Brief The ultimate target is for all websites to reach the score of 100%, this would mean that all websites have published the 15 categories of information required by the RTI Act.
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Current Evaluation of Section 6 Proactive publication via government websites The evaluation of all the 33 websites reveals the baseline rating of all government websites in accordance with Section 6 of the Right To Information Act is currently at 22%.
22% 78% Complete Not Complete Way Forward In order to reach a 100% rating of proactive publication on government websites each of the 33 agencies are encouraged to enter all the information that are required under Section 6 into their websites.

On the following page a set of instructions and examples have been prepared to assist agencies reach a 100% proactive publication score on their websites.
On the other hand, a request for further assistance can be made to the Right To Information Unit, the request to be specically addressed to the Publications Ofcer.

#raetblongsave THE GUIDE TO COMPLETE YOUR APPLICATION OF SECTION 6 OF THE RTI ACT ON YOUR WEBSITE a. a description of its structure and functions Provide a visual structure of your agency including a description of its functions; The Director is the Principal Administrative Ofcer of this agency.
The structure is divided into four parts, namely the Management, the Administration, the Supervisors, the Technical Support Staff and the Field Staff.'

b. a list of the entities falling under it including their location, opening hours, and subjects handled.

The agency has two other entities that fall under it, they are the Technical Support Department and the Field Department.
Technical Department Nambatu Street P.O Box 1234 Tel: 1234 Email: 1234@vanuatu.gov.vu Monday - Friday 8AM - 5PM The Technical Support Department assists the Field Staff with Scientic Research and Field Lab Tests on societal development, behavior, and i t c. the title, business address and contact details of the Principal Administrative Ofcer Director John Smith Department of Research Nambatu Street P.O Box 1234 Tel: 1234 Email: sjohn@vanuatu.gov.vu d. the particulars of its nances Place the annual budget of your agency on the homepage of your website so it can be easily viewed; The Parliament of Vanuatu has appropriated VUV 200 Million to the Ministry of Research, VUV 100 Million is allocated to the Department of Research.
VUV 40 Million for Salaries VUV 50 Million for Operational Costs VUV 10 Million for Administrative Expenses A nancial update of the budget must be updated every 3 months; From the months of April to June the Department of Research has utilized VUV 20 Million; VUV 10 Million for Salaries VUV 8 Million for Operational Costs VUV 2 Million for Administrative Expenses THE GUIDE TO COMPLETE YOUR APPLICATION OF SECTION 6 OF THE RTI ACT ON YOUR WEBSITE e. a directory of its ofcers and employees and a brief description of the functions and powers of its ofcers and employee Sam Junior Senior Technical Ofcer jsam@vanuatu.gov.vu The Senior Technical Ofcer supports and provides technical assistance to ofcers in the Technical Department.
He reports directly to the Director and is responsible for the functions and the operations of the Technical Department.

f. the procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability From the organisational structure, insert a note on the side like this; The Field Staff are accountable to the the Senior Field Ofcer who is accountable to the Director.
g. a simple guide to its information-keeping systems This article specically advises you to publish a small guide to how your agency keeps information.

Here is a sample of how you can apply this article; We store our digital information in computers that are connected to the Vanuatu e-Government Network.
We also have a storage unit where we have archived our hard copy records since 1980. h. A statement of the types and forms of information and categories of documents that are held by it or used by its ofcer s and employees in the discharge of its functions The Department of Research creates and stores electronic and hard copy documents.
Types of information; policies, procedures and standards, briengs and reports, correspondence, meeting minutes and records, nancial records, training and education material, employee records, operational records, images and videos, contracts, registers.

The Director is accountable to the Public Service Commission who ensures that they are all performing and serving the interest of the people of the Republic of Vanuatu.
Categories of documents; administrative, business planning, training and education, nancial management, human resources, legal, policy, operational.
THE GUIDE TO COMPLETE YOUR APPLICATION OF SECTION 6 OF THE RTI ACT ON YOUR WEBSITE i. relevant details concerning any services it provides directly to members of the public The Field Department delivers community awareness's based on research ndings.. k. the particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with or representation by the members of the public in relation to the formulation of its policy or implementation of its policies We serve the public with research-based advice and recommendations.
It is important to publish and promote upcoming and regular community engagements that will to assist in decision making in higher levels.

The Department delivers between ve to ten research-based advocacy programs annually to schools, training institutions and other education associations.

l. A page can be dedicated to this article with dates, locations, time-frames, and topics to be discussed and consulted on.
the procedure to be followed in making an application for information, the particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information, including the working hours of a library or reading room, if maintained for public use Insert into your website a note like this; To make an application for a information please CLICK HERE and download the brochure in the language of your choice.
The 'CLICK HERE' must be linked to this URL: https://rti.gov.vu/index.php/en/resources/publicati ons/brochures If you have a library or a reading please state the opening hours and declare if they can be accessed by the public.
j. the content of all decisions or policies it has adopted which affect the public, along with the reasons for them, any authoritative interpretations of them and any important background material Insert into your website all the decisions and policies adopted that will directly affect the public.

For example; DOWNLOAD Community Research Policy This policy was launched in 2019 by the Department of Research to register and manage community research by local academics and foreign academics.
The policy was created after it was reported that there were people who claimed to be researchers going around in community asking questions about minerals.
The Director is accountable to the Public Service Commission who ensures that they are all performing and serving the interest of the people of the Republic of Vanuatu THE GUIDE TO COMPLETE YOUR APPLICATION OF SECTION 6 OF THE RTI ACT ON YOUR WEBSITE m. any direct application or complaints mechanisms available to members of the public regarding acts or a failure to act by that Government agency or relevant private entity, along with a summary of any applications, complaints or other direct actions by members of the public and that Government agency or relevant private entity’s response n. the names, designations, contact details and other particulars of its Right to Information Ofcers Leiwia Kalo Right To Information Ofcer Department of Research Email: lkalo@vanuatu.gov.vu Tel: 1234 such other information deemed necessary in the public interest or as may be prescribed by this Act or any other Act This article covers the release of information of public interest via press releases, public announcements, radio shows, TV shows, community awareness's and any other medium's used by your agency.
You must insert into you websites a complaints mechanism for your agency is there is one.

o.

If you have had complaints in the past, please insert one of those complaints including how your agency responded to that complaint.

For example; Complainant: My community did not receive any awareness from your Department regarding how internet can affect our young people and who we can manage them.

We heard the other community have had theirs but we have not.

I am disappointed with your service.


Department of Research: Dear Sir, we apologize for not reaching your community as we had a nancial constraint.

However, we can assure you that your community will be included in the next awareness program which will begin next month.