TelevisionPost: Mumbai: Saturday, February 03, 2018.
A third-party
audit by the Indian Institute of Mass Communications (IIMC) has revealed that
the ministry of information and broadcasting’s (MIB) compliance of the new
guidelines on Suo-motu disclosure is also partial and incomplete.
The Suo-motu
disclosure of more items under Section 4 Sub-section 4(2) of the RTI Act, 2005
requires every public authority to take steps to provide as much information
suo-motu to the public at regular intervals so that the public have minimum
resort to use the Act to obtain information.
As per IIMC
report titled ‘Audit of Proactive Disclosure of Information Ministry of
Information & Broadcasting’, the ministry’s disclosure of 17 categories of
information under Section 4(1) (b) of the RTI Act is incomplete and partial.
The categories
include information like particulars of organisation, powers of officers, and
those related to the functioning of the organisation.
The ministry
is also non-complaint with the mandate of providing information in Hindi and
vernacular languages besides English. According to the IIMC report, the
information provided by MIB is available only in English and that too not
complete.
The report
also noted that the information is not being updated regularly by the MIB.
As part of
its recommendations, the audit report has urged the MIB to proactively disclose
information as per the Guidelines issued by Department of Personnel and
Training (DoPT) for digital publication of proactive disclosure under Section
4.
This the
report said will help in better implementation of the suo-motu disclosure of
information as per Guidelines on suo-motu disclosure under Section 4 of the RTI
Act, 2005.
It further
recommended that the information must be updated at regular interval. Every
webpage displaying information or data proactively disclosed under the RTI Act
should be displayed on the ‘top right corner’, the mandatory field ‘Date last
updated (DD/MM/YY)’.
The IIMC also
suggested that the information under the item ‘What’s New’ which have emanated
in the last 15 days to a month should figure under this heading.
It further
stated that this information be made available under the Section/Wing issuing
the Order/information after 15 days or so. The information which is even three
years old (2013) should be available in ‘What’s New’ section.
Thirty items
like particulars of organisation, the procedure followed in decision making,
the budget allocated, and recipients of concessions among others must be placed
under one heading ‘Proactive Disclosure’ so that the information is available
to layman under one heading.
It has also
been recommended that a committee must be formed as per the DoPT directive
dated 30 June 2016 which states that the Public Authorities must constitute
Consultative Committees consisting of office bears of key stakeholders’
associations on rotational basis to have a systematic and regular interaction
between officials of the Public Authorities to advice what information to be
uploaded as suo-motu.
The MIB has
also been asked to identify the information which is frequently sought by
citizens and such information must be disclosed in public domain if it is not
exempt under provisions of RTI Act 2005.
The aim of
the audit was to study the information disclosed by the MIB proactively under
Section 4(1) (b), examine the level of compliance of the detailed guidelines
regarding implementation of suo-motto disclosure under Section 4 of the RTI
Act, 2005, the quality of proactive disclosure made under the Act and the
guidelines from layman’s point of view, and suggest measures for better and
effective compliance and implementation of Section 4 of RTI Act, relating to
proactive disclosures.
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