Formulation and Implementation of the Ministry of Defense’S Information Management Policy (BR0063)

to formulate the Ministry of Defense’s Information Management Policy, which shall establish procedures for information disclosure, classification, handling and management within the aforementioned Ministry.

Commitment 2.6. Formulation and implementation of the Ministry of Defence’s Information Management Policy

Commitment Text: To formulate the Ministry of Defence’s Information Management Policy, which shall establish procedures for information disclosure, classification, handling and management within the aforementioned Ministry.

Responsible institution: Ministry of Defence (MD)

Supporting institution: None

Start date: Not specified                          End date: 14 June 2014

Commitment aim

This commitment worked toward approving the information management policy for the Ministry of Defence (MD), strengthening compliance with the LAI, and articulating plans for document management in the MD. The MD was created in 1999, and is responsible for records that civil society seeks to monitor, such as historical records during the period of military dictatorship in Brazil. The commitment sought to improve transparency and compliance with regard to access to information procedures, as well as clarify how access to information requests should be addressed.

Status

Midterm: Substantial

The new MD regulation was first developed in March 2013. It then passed through a process of consensus-building among MD authorities and public officials in April 2013. In November 2014, different bodies of the ministry analysed the regulation.

End of term: Completed

The regulation was approved and published in May 2015.^{[Note 45: Ministry of Defence, Regulation N­0 1.000, 4 May 2015, http://bit.ly/2eYKOnf. ]} It formally approves the ministry’s Information Management Policy, and establishes a formal protocol for managing information and handling access to information requests.

Did it open government?

Access to information: Marginal

The ministry’s new Information Management Policy sets new standards and criteria for the disclosure, classification, and management of information. According to the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji):

“The commitment represents important and fundamental progress, especially because the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces are still often cited as examples of secrecy being more common than transparency. The establishment of criteria for the management of documents in the area of defence can help to better define clauses I, V and VIII of Article 23 of the Law of Access to Information [allowing for classification of documents for reasons of defense, Armed Forces strategy, and intelligence], which are still applied much too broadly.”^{[Note 46: E-mail correspondence to IRM researcher from Marina Atoji of the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism.]}

In addition to improving the quality standards of the access to information process, the new regulation also created the Ministry of Defence Information Management Commission to support and evaluate the implementation of the new policy.^{[Note 47: Ministry of Defence Information Management Commission, http://bit.ly/2gdDt0J. ]} The commission has already met several times, and published a report on the status of the new policy in September 2016,^{[Note 48: Ministry of Defence Information Management Commission, Report on the Implementation of the Ministry of Defence Information Management Policy, September 2016, http://bit.ly/2gCw2DI. ]} after the close of the action plan.

While the commitment formalised and systematised LAI practices, the most fundamental aspects of information disclosure by the MD had already been implemented prior to the commitment. The IRM researcher could not find evidence that the new regulation resulted in improved responses to information requests. The completion of the commitment is, therefore, a marginal improvement in access to information.

Carried forward?

The commitment is not part of Brazil’s third action plan. If the commitment is carried forward in the future, the IRM researcher advises the government to expand civic participation, such as in the debate on the reclassification of secret and ultra-secret documents (an important topic for civil society), and via the use of technologies to promote active transparency in open data formats.