The Sunday Times: Sri Lanka: Sunday, February 11, 2018.
One year
after the Right to Information (RTI) Law came into effect, 88% of the RTI
requests submitted to Government Ministries have been responded to or, are
being processed, while 12% have been rejected, according to a study conducted
by the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI), based on data received from 22
Ministries.
As per the
RTI process, if a request is rejected, an appeal can be made to the Designated
Officer at the relevant authority, failing which, an appeal could be made to
the RTI Commission. In this regard, the RTI Commission had received 485 appeals
as of Jan.26, 2018, the SLPI stated in a media release.
The Ministry
of Education has received the most number of RTI requests, at an average of 35
RTI requests per month, followed by the Ministry of Public Administration and
Management with 30 RTI requests per month, the Ministry of Health, Nutrition
& Indigenous Medicine, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Transport
& Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media, which is the
nodal Ministry for implementation for RTI in Sri Lanka.
The highest
amount of RTI requests to the Ministries came from Colombo, Gampaha and Kandy
districts, while the least number of requests were from Mullaitivu, Vavuniya
and Batticaloa districts.
While this
data from the main Ministries indicates there is progress, there is still a
long way to go, the SLPI release stated. Countries which have implemented the
RTI Law before Sri Lanka, are still facing challenges in getting the message
across, and getting both, officials and citizens to use the RTI. The nodal
Ministry for RTI Implementation, the RTI Commission, Public Authorities, media
and civil society organisations must continue to build awareness and provide
support on all fronts, for the successful implementation of the RTI, the
release pointed out.
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