Daily FT: Sri Lanka: Saturday, November 17,
2018.
“Only about 5% of applications for
information are having to reach the appeals stage at the RTI Commission,”
according to Human Rights Lawyer, activist and RTI Commissioner S.G.
Punchihewa, speaking at the recent launch of the Report on a study carried out
on the progress of effective implementation of the Right to Information (RTI)
Act. He said that this was a positive sign, and meant that the vast majority
are being handled effectively at the regional level.
Punchihewa was part of the panel speaking
on the launch held 27 September by a leading local civil society organisation,
the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), which had been at the forefront of
advocacy for RTI for over 15 years with its initial involvement in providing
expert input into the drafting of the Act. The report contained progress of a
number of RTI applications made in conjunction with field visits to various
regions of the country by CPA, in cooperative partnership with the Friedrich
Nauman Foundation (FNF). The main objective of this study is to evaluate,
investigate and identify weaknesses of the practical procedure stipulated in
the RTI Act for public authorities and to make recommendations to strengthen
the people’s right to information. In addition, the study seeks to shed light on
the attitudes of officers in public authorities regarding RTI and the practical
difficulties faced by citizens in seeking of information under the Act.
Other panellists included C. Dodawatte,
Veteran Journalist and Jagath Liyena Arachchi Attorney at Law who also had been
involved in RTI advocacy from many years back, as well as Sankitha Guneratne
from Transparency International and attorney at law Kugathasan Ainkaran.
The report, titled the ‘Study on
Information Requests Submitted to Public Authorities and Responses Received
under the Right to Information Act, No. 12 of 2016’ was based on analysis of
information requests sourced from the grassroots level to a variety of public
authorities during a controlled time period, and categorised the varied responses
to the requests from said public authorities. Attorney at Law Dumindu Madhushan
and Senior Researcher Lionel Guruge representing CPA presented the report.
Case studies
Attorney at Law Jagath Liyana Arachchi
who had been closely involved with the development of the RTI Act discussed
legal aspects and the experience of partner organisation Transparency
International in its programmes promoting RTI. He said that although the RTI
Act states that it will not be superseded by other legislation, already even
the recently introduced Counter-Terrorism Bill holds clauses which take
precedence in the event of a conflict.
CPA Senior Researcher Lionel Guruge
outlined some of the challenges in obtaining responses for the study, for
example, where schools were requested to give information about the number of
children admitted to Grade one and the basis for their admittance, a number of
school principals became quite disturbed and even began to call his home asking
about why this information was needed. Guruge pointed out that this was not at
all necessary if there was nothing to hide. In another case in the North,
farmers had rallied together to themselves collect sandbags and stabilised a
tank bundt following a flood alert but later learned that the local authority
had been allocated funds for this which it was not using for the purposes
intended.
Misconceptions answered
When asked how a certain irregularity had
happened, in a few cases Information Officers were brave enough to simply reply
honestly that higher political authority had interfered; this was acceptable as
in the circumstances they were indeed providing the information requested.
Due to an established culture of not
releasing information and being routinely defensive about it people have a
significant reluctance and fear to ask questions – this was confirmed by some
of the rough and harsh responses that were recorded from information officers,
as well as an unfounded reluctance to give information – e.g. in the north –
Jaffna when asked about how many restaurants were managed by the military the
response received was that this was a “national security issue” (where the
objective of this question was to find out whose land had been used for these
restaurants)
Findings in brief
Attorney at Law Dumindu Madhushan
outlined the background, content, and recommendations of the report, which
included the setting up of regional RTI desks, ensuring respect for language
rights in the issue of information, strict adherence to the time frames
specified in the Act, and provision of clear reasons for rejection of any such
application.