Decline in RTI applications received by PSU banks over last 2 years, says study

DNA: New Delhi: Monday, 13 October 2014.

Contrary to the claims of the Nayak committee that the RTI Act was a major hindrance in administration of banks, a study has found that the number of applications addressed to public sector banks have reduced over the last two years. The study by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative over the period of two years has revealed that fewer citizens are seeking information from these banks through the RTI route.

The findings suggest that despite the reduction in the number of requests, most of the banks are rejecting more and more RTI applications than before.

"So by no stretch of imagination can it be said that the governance and the competitiveness of public sector banks is constrained by the RTI Act. Whether these trends are persisting can be ascertained only when the RTI data and bank statistics are published for the year 2013-14," Venkatesh Nayak, the lead analyst, said.

RTI data for 2013-14 has not been published by the CIC as its Annual Report is under compilation. The voluntary group analysed data for 2011-12 and 2012-13 submitted by the public sector banks to the Central Information Commission in their annual reports for the compliance of the RTI Act.

"The average number of RTI applications per branch was the highest in Allahabad Bank, UCO Bank and Bank of Baroda at two per year in 2011-12. 50 of the banks received an average of less than one RTI application per branch that year.

This figure dwindled further in 2012-13 with no bank receiving even 2 RTI applications per branch," Nayak said. He said on the contrary the banks started rejected more RTI application as the data revealed that rejection of RTI applications witnessed a significant increase in 2012-13 as compared to the rate of rejection in 2011-12. "The rejection rate more than doubled in Allahabad Bank, United Bank, UCO Bank, and the Bank of Baroda in 2012-13," he said.

An expert committee under the chairmanship of PJ Nayak submitted its report to Reserve Bank of India in May in which one of its key findings was that RTI Act was a major constraint on the governance of public sector banks.

"The Committee believed that the coverage of public sector banks under the RTI Act severely inhibits their ability to compete with their rivals in the private sector. This impressionistic view was not supported by any credible evidence or facts and figures," Nayak claimed.

The CHRI decided to carry out a study for the two years for which the data was available with the CIC. "The RTI application statistics of 20 public sector banks published in the Annual Reports of the CIC over the last two years (2011-13) present a different picture. These statistics are provided to the CIC by the banks themselves under Section 25 of the RTI Act," he said.

The study said 17 banks witnessed decline in the number of RTI applications in 2012-13 when compared with the numbers received during the previous year. "The biggest decline in the number of RTI applications - more than 60% - was witnessed in UCO Bank. Union Bank of India, Central Bank of India and United Bank of India all witnessed more than 50 per cent reduction in the number of RTI applications received in 2012-13 as compared to the figures of 2011-12," he said.

Nayak said that as RTI Act enters the 10th year of its full implementation in October, banks must make a serious effort to not only disclose their NPA volumes but also the steps taken to address the problem of bad debt in order to instill confidence in their customers.