Information Officers to Submit PAIA Annual Reports Due 30 June
The Information Regulator has issued its annual notice regarding the submission of PAIA Annual Reports for the financial year 2023-2024. All public and private entities are required to submit their reports detailing requests for record access received and handled during this period by 30 June 2024.
From 1 May 2024, the Information Regulator’s updated eServices portal was opened to submit the annual reports and will remain open until the deadline on 30 June 2024.
Access to the eServices portal can be obtained through the Information Regulator (inforegulator.org.za) website:
Register first
Those who have not previously registered their Information Officer on the old portal must complete a new registration. For those who have registered on the old system, it’s necessary to transition your organisation’s data to the new eServices portal as this process is not automatic.
Information regarding migration of an organisation from the OLD Registration Portal can be found here.
Who should submit the Annual Report?
Information Officers of all public entities and private companies’ are required to submit their reports .
Who can serve as the Information Officer
There are very specific requirements of who can register as the Information Officer. Depending on the type of entity it is either the owner for a sole proprietor, a partner for a partnership or the CEO or Managing Director of an incorporated company. The Information Officer can delegate the requirements to a Deputy Information Officer. Business Accountants in Practice (SA)’s cannot be the Information Officer of their clients, but they can register the Information Officer on behalf of their clients.
Compliance
The PAIA Act mandates that all companies maintain a PAIA manual. Public companies should submit the manual to the Information Regulator. Private entities should have the PAIA manual published on their website and made available at their offices. You can find examples of the PAIA manual on the Information Regulator's website:
Reporting Requirements
There are two reports that need to be submitted to the Information Regulator:
Annual report in terms of request information (how many received, denied and allowed)
Breach of personal Information - If there was a breach, Form SCN1 should be submitted.
The Annual Report
Here is information on how to submit the PAIA Annual Report.
The report should be submitted before 30 June 2024.
