"We advise ... public and private bodies not to use the portal until such time the technical challenges are resolved," it said. In early May, it asked private and public companies to submit annual reports on how often they received and processed access to information requests. The deadline to file reports was initially set down for 30 June.
But technical glitches and the expiry of the portal's SSL certificate means this date will now be extended. An SSL certificate authenticates the identity of a website and shows that there is an encrypted connection between a browser and a web server. Users trying to access the regulator's portal to submit reports on Thursday were met with a message saying,"your connection is not private".