Moneylife: Pune: Friday, May 03, 2013.
In a great
stride towards transparency under RTI, the government has issued comprehensive
guidelines towards information dissemination for which it has set up a task
force. The latter says vital elements are still missing
The
Department of Personnel Training (DoPT) which had set up a task force for
comprehensive implementation of pro-active disclosure under Right to
Information (RTI) has issued detailed guidelines through an official memorandum
of 15 April 2013, to public authorities for pro-active disclosure of
information under Section 4 of the RTI Act.
The objective
of this exercise was to put a large amount of information in the public domain
to ensure transparency in the functioning of public authorities and reduce the
need for filing RTI applications. The memorandum states: “…the quality and
quantity of proactive disclosure is not up to a desired level. It was felt that
the weak implementation of Section 4 of the RTI Act is partly due to the fact
certain provision of the Section are not fully detailed and in case of certain
other provisions there is need for laying down detailed guidelines… there is
also a need to set up a compliance mechanism.”
The task
force which was set up in May 2011 comprised civil society organizations
working in the field of Right to Information. Based on the recommendations of
the task force, the government has issued guidelines for pro-active disclosure
of information under Section 4 of RTI Act.
The
recommendations are revolutionary in nature, as they spell out micro details of
information that is mandatory to be put up in the public domain. Following is
the gist of the recommendations:
•
Public
Private Partnerships (PPP): All information relating to PPPs must be disclosed
in the public domain by the public authority entering into the PPP
concession/agreement. This includes details of the Special Purpose Vehicle
(SPV) if set up; detailed project reports; concession agreements; operation and
maintenance manuals and other documents generated as part of the implementation
of the PPP project. For example, ministry of external affairs must put
information regarding its PPP with Tata Consultancy Services regarding the Passport
project.
•
Information
related to Procurement: This includes publication of notice/tender enquiries;
details of bid awards as well as name of the contractor; work contracts and the
rate and total amount at which such procurement of work contract has been done.
•
Transfer
policy and transfer orders: Transfer policy for different grades/cadres of
employees to be proactively disclosed. All transfers should be publicised
through the website or in any other manner listed in Section 4 (4) of the RTI
Act.
•
RTI
Applications: All public authorities to disclose RTI applications and appeals
and their responses on the websites maintained by public authorities with
search facility based on keywords.
•
CAG
and PAC paras: Public authorities to publicly disclose CAG & PAC paras and
Action Taken Reports (ATRs) only after they have been laid on the table of both
the houses of Parliament.
•
Citizen
Charter: Citizen Charter prepared by the ministry/department should be
proactively disclosed and six-monthly report on the performance against the
benchmarks set in the Citizens Charter should also be displayed on the website
of public authorities
•
Foreign
tours of PM/ministers: The memorandum states: “a large number of RTI queries
are being filed on official tours undertaken by ministers or officials of
various government ministries/departments.” Public Authorities to proactively
disclose the details of foreign and domestic official tours undertaken by
ministers and officials of the rank of joint secretary and above and heads of
departments since 1 January 2012. The information to be updated every quarter.
The information to contain nature of the official tour, places visited, the
period, the number of people included in the official delegation and total cost
of such travel undertaken
The
government has also issued detailed guidelines on digital publication of
pro-active disclosure under Section 4. The memorandum states that “more and
more proactive disclosure would gradually be made through the Internet. There
is need for more clear guidelines for web-based publication of information for
disclosure.”
The
memorandum also states: “The Department of Information Technology has been
working on setting of technical standards for government websites and the
Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances has published
guidelines for websites of government departments. These guidelines prescribe
the manner in which websites need to be designed and how information should be
disclosed… The Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, 2012, under formulation by
the Government of India would provide the necessary impetus.”
While this
step of releasing detailed guidelines for dissemination of information is
commendable, Venkatesh Nayak, one of the members of the task force and
programme coordinator of Access to Information Programme, objects to the
government concentrating largely on pro-active disclosure through the Internet
when most of India is yet not Internet savvy; omitting pre-legislative public
consultation and audits by information commissions of public authorities which
the task force has recommended. He has urged the government to notify the
omitted portions of the task force’s recommendations immediately.
In a letter
to Manoj Joshi, joint secretary, Department of Personnel and Training who has
issued the memorandum, Nayak states the following:
·
“…The
current guidelines focus more on disclosure through websites. While uploading
information on websites certainly puts it in the public domain, not many people
in urban and rural India will be able to access it easily. When less than 10%
Internet penetration and usage is recorded in the country it is important to
disseminate the voluntarily disclosed information through other means such as
notice boards, wall paintings, SMS through mobile telephony, call centres,
toll-free helplines, making information available for free inspection at
panchayats, etc
·
“The
task force had recommended a set of practical guidelines to establish a
consultative process for ascertaining people’s views on draft policies, laws,
rules and regulations prior to their finalization. When policies and laws are
drafted on the basis of people’s informed opinion, there will be greater
respect for and compliance with the same. However, this chapter on
pre-legislative consultation has been omitted from the current DoPT guidelines
·
“…the
task force had recommended that the DoPT provide all information Commission
with infrastructural support to be able to undertake audits of the performance
of public authorities vis-à-vis their proactive disclosure obligations under
the RTI Act. In the absence of such a mechanism state governments are unlikely
to establish effective monitoring mechanism on their own.”
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