Chapter IV: Procedures to access public information
Article 15: Departments that produce or hold public information shall make available to the
public a register of main documents in which this information can be found.
Article 16: The officials responsible for providing access to administrative documents and
information are:
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Senior officials of central and decentralized state institutions;
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Heads of public projects and programmes
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Local authorities
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Directors of public institutions and enterprises
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Heads of public bodies as well as those of private sector bodies charged with a public
service function.
Article 17: Conditions for re-use of public information as well as the bases of calculating any
fees payable are provided to requestors by the departments that produce or hold the requested
information
Article 18: The mode of access to administrative documents is based on the choice of the
requestor and the technical capabilities of the department:
a) By means of free on-site consultation, except where this is precluded by considerations
relating to the preservation of the document
b) Except that its reproduction does not jeopardize the preservation of the document, by
means of the issue of a copy on a medium identical to or compatible with that used by the
administration, and at the expense of the applicant, provided that such expense shall not
exceed the cost of the reproduction, and subject to conditions established by decree;
c) By e-mail, and without cost, if the document is available in electronic format.
Article 19: All requests to access administrative documents must be in writing.
An acknowledgement of receipt must be given to the applicant
The administration is required to provide a written response with reasons to the request within
fifteen (15) days of the date on which the request was received. However, requests from
researchers and journalists should be dealt with within five (05) days.
Article 20: Notification of refusal of access to a document must be in writing with reasons