Economic Times: New Delhi: Thursday,
October 13, 2016.
Only four
central ministries and eight departments have complied with a cabinet
secretariat transparency directive to proactively publish monthly summary of
their work, reveals a new survey.
More than 92%
central government ministries and 82% departments have failed to comply with
the central secretariat's directive issued in June, according to the survey
conducted by New Delhi-based international non-government organisation
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) on the 11th anniversary of Right to
Information (RTI) Act.
The
ministries that have complied with the secretariat directive are ministries of
home, medium micro and small enterprises, rural development and textiles. The
departments that have published their reports include departments of personnel
and training (DoPT), administrative reforms and public grievances, health and
family welfare, animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries, industrial policy and
promotions, public enterprises, and social justice and empowerment.
Cabinet
secretariat in its circular had said, "In order to ensure greater
transparency and availability of information in public domain about the
activities of the ministries/departments, it has been decided that henceforth,
all ministries/departments may upload, on a monthly basis, the major
achievements, significant developments and important events for the month in
respect of their ministry/department, on their official websites."
The circular
followed a Central Information Commission (CIC) order to consider the
possibility of proactively disclosing the 'unclassified' portions of the monthly
reports that ministries and departments send to the council of ministers every
month on their websites. The CIC had also advised the cabinet secretariat to
put in place a mechanism for monitoring compliance of ministries and
departments with their reporting obligations under Rule 10.
Under Rule 10
of the Rules of Procedure in Regard to Proceedings of the Cabinet, 1987, every
ministry and department is required to send a report of the work done every
month to the council of ministers through the cabinet secretariat by the 10th
of the following month. Such a monthly report may have a classified portion
(labelled 'top secret', 'secret', or 'confidential') and an unclassified
portion. However, with the exception of the coal ministry, no other ministry or
department proactively publishes any part of these monthly summaries prepared
under Rule 10.
"There
is a need for standardising the format and periodicity of reports. Even
departments and ministries that have given their achievements or summary of
work have given different periodicity,” said Venkatesh Nayak, programme
coordinator at CHRI. "To start with, it is advisable to publish on the
websites, the ‘unclassified’ portions of the monthly reports submitted to the
council of ministers," he said.
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