Grameenphone signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Information Commission to help raise citizens’ awareness by sending free text messages yesterday.
Grameenphone (GP) will now disseminate public awareness messages under the Right to Information Act (RTIA) to the 70 million mobile clientele and help implement the act.
Under the MoU, GP will also distribute messages as footnotes in newspaper commercials, and in scrolls along with TV commercials. GP-sponsored scroll bar will also show messages during TV channels’ news programmes.
Nepal Chandra Sarker, secretary of Information Commission, and Mahmud Hossain, chief corporate affairs officer of GP, signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organisation at the commission office at Sher-e Bangla Nagar in Dhaka.
Informative text messages, and voice messages for those who cannot read, will be sent to mobile users, said Chief Information Commissioner Muhammad Zamir.
“This initiative will help ensure good governance and transparency, as more people will become aware of their right to information, which eventually will make the governmental organisations more accountable,” he said.
Subsequent steps may include call centres where people can call for information, he added.
Grameenphone Chief Executive Officer Oddvar Hesjedal said the effort is part of the company’s commitment to corporate social responsibility.
“We are happy to assist the commission in ensuring free flow of information consistent with RTIA. We also hope this initiative will help government’s plan to ensure good governance in every level,” he said.
“It would accelerate the quality of government services when people start asking questions, since they are allowed to ask questions now,” he added. GP will support the commission in further development of its website, so that it becomes more user-friendly and functional, said Hesjedal.
Range Birte Lund, ambassador of Norway to Bangladesh, and Sadeka Halim, information commissioner, also spoke.
