Civil servants must understand the Freedom of Information (FOI) law before its application can be effective, Mr Danladi Kifasi, the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance has said.

Kifasi made the statement at a sensitisation seminar in Abuja on the FOI law, noting that the seminar became imperative because the law demanded so much from public servants who should understand its provisions.

“This sensitisation seminar is indeed, coming at the right time given the fact that the FOI became law only recently and a lot of people have not yet been conversant with its provisions.

“Even the public servants, from whom the law will demand so much, have yet to imbibe and fully come to terms with the open environment created by the Act,” he said.

He tasked public servants to understand the provisions of the Act to carry out their duties effectively.

“Every public servant must now fully understand the provisions of the Act and apply them as a guide in the performance of their official duties.

“The FOI law has the potential of becoming a strong weapon in the fight against corruption, as you are all aware, openness and transparency tend to discourage corruption; one of the objectives of the Act,” he said.

A resource person at the seminar, Mr Emmanuel Agbegir said the civil service should embrace Information Communication Technology (ICT) in records’ keeping.

He said that in as much as the civil service would not want to be accused of contempt of the FOI law, it must embrace ICT to upgrade the record handling process to become faster and easier.

“We are consequently confronted with a situation of correct record keeping but poor storage culture.

“How then do we overcome this challenge if the civil service is not to be accused of acting in contempt of the FOI Act?’’ he asked.

Our correspondent recalls that the FOI Bill was passed into law by President Goodluck Jonathan on May 28.