Punjab slow in RTI enforcement: Commission

ISLAMABAD: Punjab was quick to pass Right to Information (RTI) law taking cue from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but the provincial government is frustratingly slow in its implementation with bureaucracy posing resistance to the RTI Commission through cutting budget, trainings and culture of secrecy.

Principle information officers are either not designated or not made public. The complaints of RTI requesters forwarded to different departments are either not answered or the appellants face harassment especially if they are government employees, background interviews with the requesters indicate and they gained further credence from the replies offered by the commission. The News sent a list of 20 questions to Punjab Information Commission (PIC), an appellant body that deals with the public complaints, only to discover that PIC is simultaneously fighting for its own survival and public’s right to know.

The funds given to the PIC are insufficient to hire the staff required for day-to-day operations. Even the commissioners were refused office space until February this year leaving no option for them but to work from their homes.

The PIC was established in March 2014; its budget approved seven months later whereas the furniture etc purchased 15 months after the setting up of the commission, according to the details acquired through RTI request by The News. The information commissioners in the meanwhile kept working from their homes drafting rules and schedule of cost of requested documents notified in January 2015 and issued the guidelines for the designation of PIOs in March this year.

Twenty months on, the challenges remain due to persistent resistance of bureaucracy in shape of budgetary constraints, lack of pro-active disclosures, frequent transfers of PIOs trained by PIC and lack of staff.

The PIC demanded over Rs88.36 million budget for the current financial year 2015-16 only to receive Rs44.6 million resultantly there is no fund for recruiting necessary staff.

The commission has a sanctioned strength of 43 posts that contrasts with the staff at its disposal. The PIC has one assistant director (hired last week), one superintendent taken on loan from another department and five persons on daily wages. “The superintendent has received transfer order; he has not yet relinquished present charge at the commission,” reads the PIC reply to The News.

That services rules have not been approved remains another challenge as a summary has been pending approval since May, 2015. The staff at work has no incentive to perform. The commission doesn’t have either any vehicle or budget enough to offer any conveyance allowance to them. The budgetary allocation is also insufficient for stationery, correspondence, travel, training of PIOs and public awareness. The government has allocated only Rs1 million for awareness campaign in contrast with the last year’s allocation of Rs30 million.

In cases, the government departments didn’t publicise on their website the name and contact details of the designated PIOs. It has also been observed that notification of a PIO is sent to the commission without letting the assigning officer know of his duty.

As The News asked the PIC about the bureaucracy response, this was the reply: “The bureaucracy has been generally slow in terms of supporting the operationalisation of the commission. The commission has suffered from long delays in obtaining required approvals regarding supplementary budget, posting of staff, services rules, vehicles and other budget/account related matters.”

The PIC in the past has heard complaints of harassment of the government officers who filed RTI requests only to face the backlash. To a question relating to this issue, the PIC reply notes: “In several cases, the information requesters have allegedly been harassed by concerned senior officers from whom or about whom information was sought.”

For example, the PIC reply goes on, a teacher had alleged that the EDO Education (Vehari) launched inquiry against him after he sought information. In another instance, an employee of Judicial Academy was removed from service, allegedly, after she sought information and refused to withdraw her complaint filed in the commission. However, it is hard to objectively ascertain whether the complaints are genuinely related to information requests, as public bodies deny such charges and often refer to other allegations against such employees, the reply further notes.

Despite all resistance from the bureaucracy, the commission has not given up as it continues discharging duty amid challenges. It has received around 1,600 complaints against various government departments and 800 of them have been decided.

It was due to PIC’s interference that Punjab Assembly is regularly uploading the attendance record of MPAs, logbooks of the vehicles of DCOs are maintained and the Chief Minister Office had to release information about the expenses on bakery items, bottled waters, gifts, helicopter use and foreign visits.

Likewise, the Governor House had to share information about expenses on refreshments and the file noting regarding governor’s orders on representation against the ombudsman’s order.