The
Hindu: New Delhi: Monday, 25 May 2015.
Noting that
voluntary disclosures of information have been “below par,” a CIC-constituted
panel has said that details of domestic and foreign visits of Union Ministers
should be proactively disclosed and kept updated.
The committee
said this against the backdrop of the PMO not disclosing information about
expenses incurred on foreign visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Prime
Minister’s Office has been refusing to disclose information related to expenses
incurred on Mr. Modi’s foreign visits, citing various excuses such as the
records that are sought for being “vague.”
The committee
of former Chief Information Commissioner A.N. Tiwari and Information
Commissioner M.M. Ansari, constituted by the CIC, gave its report on
“Transparency Audit: Towards An Open and Accountable Government.”
The panel
referred to the September 11, 2012 circular issued by the Ministry of Personnel
where it asked all departments to proactively disclose expenses incurred on the
foreign and domestic visits of Ministers.
“These
disclosures should be updated once in every quarter,” the committee said asking
the government to also disclose other details such as places visited and the
institutions/individuals interacted with, names of the members in the official
delegation, mode of conveyance, travel expenses and source of funding and
outcome of the visit.
It said “a
democratic government keen on empowering the people and delivering to them
goods and services speedily and efficiently, cannot allow walls of secrecy to
separate them from the very people they serve.”
A large
number of wholly avoidable RTI petitions for information, which should even
otherwise be openly available, were still being filed, it said.
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