Exploring corporate communications gaps in public institutions necessitating access to information law in Zambia : the case of Zambia revenue authority
Corporate organisations in Zambia, whether public or private, are expected to effectively communicate with their various stakeholders. It is ideally expected that these organisations will keep their stakeholders well informed about what is happening in their respective organisations more especially that most of them have Public Relations (PR) officers whose role is to communicate. Though there is no legal provision in Zambia that mandates organisations to disclose information to the public, principles of good governance demand that they are open, transparent, accountable and responsible to the public. Weak disclosure and non-transparent practices can contribute to unethical behaviour and loss of market integrity at great cost, not just to the company and its shareholders but also to the country’s economy as a whole (OECD, 2015:41). However, the corporate communications practices in most public organisations including Zambia Revenue Authority leave much to be desired. On 18th March, 2019, Cabinet reaffirmed its commitment to enacting the Access To Information (ATI) law which would compel public institutions to provide information to the public on request (Mwila, 2019). The enactment of the ATI law is expected to change the way government ministries and public institutions disclose information and communicate to the public. The overall objective of the study was to examine public institution’s communication gaps which are necessitating the enactment of the Access to Information law in the country. The study employed exploratory and descriptive research designs. It adopted a mixed methods approach where both the qualitative and quantitative methodologies were employed. It was a case study of Zambia Revenue Authority which is one of the critical public institutions mandated to collect revenue on behalf of the government. The research concluded that public institutions are not doing enough to satisfy the information needs of the public hence the need for the ATI law in the country. ATI law would therefore bridge the gap if enacted by allowing members of the public to access the information they want. The research however recommended that ZRA as a public institution immediately deals with the challenges that members of the public face when accessing information from the institution. Keywords: Corporate communication, access to information, transparency and accountability
Communication, Public relations--Zambia, Communication in management., Communication in organizations., Business communication--Technological innovations.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations