Colombo Page: Sri Lanka: Friday, September 29, 2017.
While the Sri
Lankan government is making steady progress in making information available for
the country's citizens through the historic Right to Information Act, its
record management, including its land registration system need to be revamped,
the World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka and Maldives Idah
Pswarayi-Riddihough says.
Writing in a
blog to mark the International Day for Universal Access to Information
Pswarayi-Riddihough says the Right to Information (RTI) Bill enacted seven
months ago is a milestone in Sri Lanka's history.
The
government is making steady progress making the information availed for the
people, the World Bank official says. According to Pswarayi-Riddihough, in the
last six months, more than 3,000 information officers have been recruited. An
independent RTI Commission enforces compliance and acts on those who do not
follow the law. If, for example, an information officer refuses to release
information pertaining to a citizen's life, they must provide a valid reason or
face legal penalties.
She notes
that in the next few years, the Sri Lankan bureaucracy faces the huge task of
revamping its record management, including its land registration system.
"This
reform is an opportunity to live up to RTI's ambitions of open governance and
help citizens access land title information and records that give them a legal
title to their property," Pswarayi-Riddihough says.
She points
out that currently registering a property takes 9 steps and 51 days. "And
while the government aims to reduce the process to an ambitious 2 steps and 5
days, this is still a far cry from a modern and transparent land administration
system."
The official
suggests to digitize land administration to make the process simpler and more
accountable to citizens.
A recent
meeting the World Bank Country Director attended with the Minister and
Secretary of the Ministry of Lands and Parliamentary Reforms and the Surveyor
General focused on policies that need to be formulated to establish a
user-centric and effective land administration system within a reasonable
timeframe in Sri Lanka.
Fixing the
system will resolve one of the largest drawbacks to improving the country's
Doing Business ranking, the official noted.
"Having
these systems in place would support the implementation of the RTI as these
would be proactive measures to help citizen's access information in a timely
manner and would also help the government officials to do their job
better," World Bank Country Director says.
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