Right to Information: A few relevant points
RIGHT to information (RTI) is a widely discussed subject these days. There is a growing sense of awareness about the necessity of RTI throughout the world. RTI is recognised as one of the basic human rights. Many countries today are showing more and more interest for implementation of an act to ensure RTI. This they are doing in order to achieve transparency, accountability and overall good governance for securing human rights.
The same is also applicable to Bangladesh. It is an accepted fact today that in order to establish good governance and ensure human rights, flow of information and its easy availability needs to be guaranteed.
The council of advisors, in its meeting on June 18, approved in principle the Right to Information Ordinance, 2008 (RTIO, 2008). The same ordinance is now in the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs for scrutiny and finalisation.
So far, there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of the government in enacting the RTI. This is for the first time in the history of this country that a draft ordinance was prepared with the direct participation of the people, by disseminating it widely through a website and arranging dialogues with civil society. This reflects the government's commendable intention of making the RTI act more people oriented.
There is a belief that the right of the people to information cannot be ensured by enacting a law only. That law must not have any ambiguity or loophole. At the same time, it must not be impractical in the context of the country. All the countries that have, or are formulating, this law are giving due consideration to their own situation to make the implementation effective.
Two organisations, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and Article 19, which have been successfully working on RTI for quite sometime now, have chalked out certain universal standards to be followed while formulating any law in this respect. Two broad guide-lines to be adhered to are (a) maximum disclosure of the information which is allowed for disclosure, and (b) minimum restriction of the information which is not allowed for disclosure.
As per the international standard, only matters relating to safeguarding security, sovereignty, integrity, internal law order and personal privacy might be kept in the list of restricted topics.
Excluding those, all other matters affecting the personal safety, standard of living, day to day life of the people etc., should be allowed to be provided to whoever wants it. So, in order to avoid the scope of denial of information, the law should very specifically point out in clear terms what information can be provided and what cannot.
It is also important to locate the type of information that would benefit the people the most. As an example, if the people know how much fund has been allocated for what work, or what relief or social security net program has been taken for them in and around their locality, an environment of accountability will be established, which will definitely add to the improvement of their lives and income. So a standard law should have the provision of proactive disclosure to address those areas that are relevant to their livelihood.
The union is the lowest tier of our administrative unit. A considerable portion of our national development budget is spent at this level. Execution or implementation is done by the central government. So use of fund is taken up at that level.
If the people of the union could get the details about the allocation of funds for development works in their area, they could make the implementing authority accountable.
By ensuring proper utilisation of the funds they can help reduce corruption. At the same time, by reducing waste in public expenditure and ensuring quality and quantity of work and services they can have positive improvement in their day to day life.
Food security has become one of the top-most priorities and challenge the nation is facing at the moment. It is essential that availability and proper distribution of agricultural inputs like fertilsers, seeds, pesticides etc. are ensured at the farmers' level even in remote villages. Monitoring of this could be effectively done from the union level.
Accountability of this whole process could be best ensured with the active participation of the stakeholders at the grass-roots level. That would be possible only if people could know the details of government activities in this respect through the use of RTI at the union level.
This year's budget provides a big amount for creating an extensive social security network for the poor, a major portion of whom live in villages. A unique program for providing jobs for a minimum period of 100 days in a year has been made for 2 million people belonging to the ultra-poor category.
The success of the program depends very much on the selection of the receivers and proper distribution to them. Without proper supervision corruption may crop up, destroying the very purpose of these programs. Monitoring can ensure accountability, and participation of the stakeholders, or others living in those villages, in monitoring could prove useful. This will be possible only if they have easy access to information about the program through RTI.
The proposed ordinance should give particular attention to this issue and make provisions for maintaining of land records and ensuring easy access to the same.
At present, union level offices are in a position to provide much information to the public, which they are reluctant to do in absence of any law binding them to do so. The RTI ordinance, 2008 can provide that legal basis if specified.
The effectiveness of the RTI commission will depend much on the authority of the chief information commissioner and commissioners, and on the way they are selected. Moreover, they need to have the authority to independently place their budget directly to the parliament, and get the approval from there.
Moreover, the commission should have the power to implement decisions by imposing punishment for non-compliance. The proposed ordinance needs to look into these points and make suitable provisions accordingly.
It is the desire of all concerned that the finalised form of the RTI ordinance, 2008 would to cater the above as much possible.
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