MONROVIA, Montserrado – The Liberia Electricity Corporation has denied a Freedom of Information Act request to provide information on how the agency measures the quality of its service.

The key performance indicators would allow The Bush Chicken to evaluate the quality of service the agency has been providing over the past year.

The request from The Bush Chicken was sent on Nov. 8 to LEC’s chief executive officer, Peter Graham. In a response dated on Nov. 16, the agency’s legal counsel, Mayalan Keita-Brown, said although LEC strongly supports the promotion of the FOIA, it would deny the request.

Keita-Brown wrote that LEC was denying the request under a section of the law which exempts information relating to national defense, security, and international relations.

Keita-Brown said because LEC operates in collaboration with many international organizations, it could not “divulge any confidential information to other entities.”

“Consequently we have no other alternative but to deny your request,” Keita-Brown’s letter continued.

The letter provided no further justification about how information collected and stored by LEC would be classified as confidential, especially when portions of that information had already been published in other locations. For example, the World Bank’s 2017 Doing Business report included data about LEC’s performance that was likely provided by the agency.

In accordance with the FOIA, The Bush Chicken has written a communication to the head of LEC, appealing the decision.

Featured photo by Jefferson Krua