The Island: Sri Lanka: Friday,
March 31, 2017.
Decent Lanka
2015, a civil society group, has written to the Chairman, Right to Information
(RTI) Commission about denial of provision of some basic information by a
Deputy Director General (DDG) of the Ministry of Health (MoH).
It released
to the media a letter dated 06 March 2017 addressed to the Information Officer/
DDG (Medical Services 1) explaining how she denied the information. They also
released the duly filled form, as per the provisions of the RTI Act, they
furnished to the said official requesting the information on 28 February 2017.
It is obvious
that what the civil society group asked for was not the sun or the moon. The
goofed-off information by the Information Officer of the MoH were some basic
information, perhaps, that could be readily available had the MoH keeps its
records up to date. The requested information were noting but the number of
doctors, in clinical and non clinical fields including the specialists serving
the MoH as of 31 January 2017.
The
particular DDG in question had submitted an irrelevant list of specialist
positions the same day says the Decent Lanka. The civil society group had
written back to her noting the irrelevance of the information provided, and
re-requested the information. However, not only the DDG’s office didn’t comply
with the request, but at a subsequent telephone enquiry, in the absence of DDG
in her seat, the staff exhibited total ignorance about the said request,
according to the complainers.
We understand
this is the very office of the MoH, which was established subsequent to the RTI
Act’s enactment, to deal with the subject of information dissemination. But
what we see is a hands down instance of the left hand not knowing what the
right is doing.
Out and out
inefficiency of the MoH is well-known to the citizens of this country. Their
continuing failure to make even the slightest inroads into the continuing
dengue menace, leave alone its control, is a case in point. (Even in this
regard, the only response known to them was shameful concealment of information.
Now they keep the dengue death statistics hidden from the public for the past
many years).
One category
of staff or the other in the state health sector is on strike almost on a daily
basis. The health authorities always fail to address their grievances
miserably. The poor patients’ screams from hospital wards, corridors and OPDs
are not heard by the health bureaucrats. Against such backdrop, we have come to
a pass where the country is losing whatever the gains the health sector had
made in the past. And it is this same backdrop that has necessitated a wider
civil society engagement in matters related to the functions of the MoH.
The public
needs to know information from the MoH pertaining to its functions for a number
of reasons. Among these, the fact that it is the most corrupt state
establishment in the country, as was once said by none other than the President
of the country, is but an important one.
Apart from
that its inefficiency has now grown into pathological dimensions. This again
has necessitated the public’s right for enquiry about its functioning. The
Health Ministry’s officials should be cognizant of the fact that their
institution including their salaries are financed by the general public, and
the general public has all the right to know whatever information that are of
public interest.
Coming back
to the RTI Act, that is one of the most looked forward to pieces of legislation
to have passed in the parliament in the recent past. The importance attributed
to it by all the parties representing the parliament goes without saying as it
was enacted unanimously. It is saddening to note that the MoH has appointed an
official who has no insight about it or doesn’t give two hoots about it to be
responsible for its execution within its bounds.
The Section
23 (2) and (3) of the Right to Information Act, No. 12 of 2016, on the role of
Information Officer stipulates, "Every information officer shall deal with
requests for information made to the public authority of which he or she has
been appointed its information officer, and render all necessary assistance to
any citizen making such request to obtain the information. The Information
Officer may seek the assistance of any other officer as he or she may consider
necessary, for the proper discharge of the duty imposed on him under this Act,
and where assistance is sought from any such officer, it shall be the duty of
such officer to provide the required assistance".
These
sections we reproduce here for the information of the relevant authorities of
the Ministry to get the feel of their misdeed, had they not known what they
were supposed to do (in the position of Information Officer).
Now that the
ball is in the RTI Commission’s court, it will be interesting to see how it is
going to handle this situation. Whatever its approach will be, we wish it would
be in the best interest of the country’s public, and their right to know.
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