The Nation Newspaper: Colombo: Saturday,
June 11, 2016.
Independent
think-tank, Verite Research expressed concern regarding weak provisions under
Section 40 of the gazetted Right to Information (RTI) Bill concerning
whistleblowers, and the fact that there were no penalties for the delayed
provision of information based on requests for information.
Section
5(1)(f) reads, “Subject to the provisions of subsection (2) a request under
this Act for access to information shall be refused, where the information
consist of any communication, between a professional and a public authority to
whom such professional provides services, which is not permitted to be
disclosed under any written law, including any communication between the
Attorney General or any officer assisting the Attorney General in the
performance of his duties and a public authority.”
Section 40
concerns the release and disclosure of information by an employee of a public
authority.
Legal Analyst
and Research Director at Verite Research, Gehan Gunatilleke said that aside to
the explicit inclusion of the Attorney General’s Department from the scope of
Section 5 where the right of access to information may be denied, and there
being no uniform reporting cycle for the submission of RTI reports by public
authorities under Section 10 (where it is the duty of every public authority to
submit reports to the RTI Commission), which in its present state, only refers
to the submission of ‘annual reports’, there was an inconsistency between
Section 24(5)(c) and Section 25(3).
Section
24(5)(c) reads, “where the citizen making the request believes that the
information is necessary to safeguard the life or liberty of a person, [s/he
shall] include a statement to that effect, including the basis for that
belief,” and Section 25(3) reads, “Where the request for information concerns
the life and personal liberty of the citizen making such request, the response
to it shall be made within 48 hours of the receipt of the request.”
He added that
Section 25(3) must be amended to ensure that a request for information that is
necessary to safeguard the life or liberty of any person including a person
other than the citizen making the request shall receive a response within 48
hours.
“This is to
enable families of arrested, disappeared or missing persons to request
information from the relevant authorities and receive information without
delay. Section 24(5)(c) sets up this possibility, but Section 25(3) then
narrows its scope by restricting it to information pertaining to the citizen
making the request,” he said.
“The
provision on whistleblowers should be strengthened to afford protection to
individuals making proactive disclosures (ones that do not necessarily arise
out of specific requests for information) in good faith as such are key to
revealing corruption and mismanagement within public authorities.”
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