K-P, Punjab public bodies fail to comply with RTI laws: Report

Report cites 'worrisome' absence of information on Public Information Officers; recommends implementation of RTI laws


Web Desk January 03, 2015
Overall, the scores have not changed much compared to previous quarterly reports. STOCK IMAGE

The provincial governments of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) have failed to comply with their respective Right to Information (RTI) laws, a report published by Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) after a year-long research.

K-P and Punjab public bodies are required to proactively disclose categories of information mentioned in Sections 5 and 4 of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Act 2013 and Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013 respectively.

The report titled ‘The State of Proactive Disclosure of Information in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab Public Bodies’ measures the openness of government websites using various points from the right to information laws of the provinces along with a question to measure the ease of accessibility and readability.

The initiative was launched early last year as a quarterly effort with the aim of determining the extent to which public bodies in K-P and Punjab were implementing relevant sections of their right to information laws and proactively disclosing information through their websites.

Findings

Over the course of the year, the report says, only a small number of public bodies maintained their websites on a regular basis, while some websites had not been updated in months.

The report also noted that no public body in the two provinces had disclosed information about employee remuneration and benefits during the year, while there was a “worrisome” absence of information about Public Information Officers who supposed to be responsible for sharing information based on citizen requests.

Websites of local bodies failed to clearly specify the steps a citizen had to take to access information, to file information online, the time it would take for a response from the public body, and any alternative steps to be taken if there was no response.

On a positive note, the annual report found that the majority of websites were properly designed and easily accessible by citizens who had a basic understanding of the Internet, a finding consistent with quarterly reports published throughout the year.

The report advised provincial bodies to ensure implementation of relevant sections of the RTI laws.

Surprisingly, the research team found that websites of the information commission of K-P and the information department of Punjab, even after a year of the RTI laws being passed, lacked adequate web presence in compliance with the RTI laws.

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