Penang govt relaxes requirements for statutory declaration

GEORGE TOWN: The Penang government has watered down the requirement for a statutory declaration (SD) to obtain documents applied for under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Enactment 2010.

Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramsamy (pix) said the applicants still need to sign a SD but noted this was only to restrict applicants from using the documents for profit.

The previous SD condition was that applicants could not reproduce documents obtained via the FOI.

"They have to sign to ensure the documents are not used for profit, they cannot make money out of the documents," he said in a press conference today.

Ramsamy also said a decision was taken not to amend the FOI law to include a clause to make the SD a legal requirement.

He said the state decided to make the SD requirement an administrative measure so the stipulation was easier to remove if a decision was made to do so in the future.

"If we want to get rid of it (the SD requirement) in the future, we can do so without any fuss (and) without taking the matter to the legislature to amend the law," he said.

Ramasamy also announced the state will be organising the Penang Right to Know Week in conjunction with the International Right to Know Day on Sept 28.

He said the function was to create awareness on freedom of information and to gather views from the public to improve the implementation of the FOI.

Programs during the Week comprise a Freedom of Information Forum on Sept 27, an Open Data Seminar on Sept 28 and a Media and Open Government Forum which will be conducted in Mandarin on Oct 5.