Livemint: New Delhi: Saturday, July
02, 2016.
The National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has suggested that all departments carry
out transparency audits and identify questions that are frequently asked by
people, seeking to reduce the backlog of right to information (RTI)
applications.
“In each
public authority, a committee of PIOs (public information officers) and FAAs
(first appellate authorities) with rich experience of dealing with RTI
applications and appeals is set up to identify the categories of information
that are frequently asked for by applicants. Such information must be disclosed
in the public domain to make it more user-friendly and should also be reviewed
at regular intervals,” said an order issued by the department of the personnel
and training (DoPT), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Thursday’s
DoPT order also said that the “task of undertaking transparency audits may be
given to the respective training institutes under each ministry, department,
public authority and across states and Union territories”.
The order
came after DoPT examined recommendationsof an expert committee on suo motu (on
its own) disclosures under Section 4 of the RTI Act, 2005, which mandates
proactive disclosure of maximum information by government departments.
An expert
committee consisting of former chief information commissioner A.N. Tiwari and
information commissioner at the Central Information Commission M.M. Ansari
recommended a slew of measures to strengthen the implementation of Section 4 of
the RTI Act. The committee submitted its report last year.
Subsequently,
DoPT has issued several orders to government departments to improve
transparency and put more information in the public domain. For instance, it
has already asked departments to provide information sought most often on their
website as suo motu disclosures.
The latest
order is in line with those efforts. It has been sent to all central government
ministries and departments as well as to state governments. DoPT is the nodal
authority for implementation of the RTI Act.
The 30 June
order also suggested the setting up of ‘information and facilitation centres’
in each public authority where public dealing is involved, to educate citizens
about the information/documents available on the website of the department
concerned and to provide printed publications to citizens on the categories of
information that are frequently sought under the RTI Act.
“Information
that is proactively disclosed must be properly categorized and organized in
such a manner that it facilitates easy retrieval. Information on the website
must be organized in a searchable and retrievable database to enable people to
access the records. The nodal officer of each public authority must be made
responsible for this,” the order added.
Experts
welcomed the move.
“It is a
welcome measure. However, for transparency audits, departments need to involve
people who are users of that information. Their concerns should be taken into
account,” said Venkatesh Nayak of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, a
non-governmental organization working on human rights-related issues.
Nayak, who
has been part of DoPT’s task force for effective implementation of the RTI Act
since 2011, said that the “department heads need to be made responsible for the
effective implementation of the RTI Act and that should be made part of their
performance appraisal”.
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