The longstanding culture of not providing information coupled with procrastination of the authorities are some of the major obstacles standing in the way of an effective implementation of the Right to Information Act, which can help curb corruption.
Again, lack of public awareness and the reluctance of the media to use the law for professional purposes were identified as the challenges by the Information Commission in its annual report for 2012.
Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu on Monday tabled the annual report in the assembly.
The report identified 16 obstacles to the poor implementation of the right to information act, first passed by the military-led interim government of Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed to bring transparency and accountability of different authorities.
Assuming the office in January 2009, the Awami League government validated the ordinance and made it a law. In line with the act, the government set up the Information Commission, which is headed by a chief information commissioner and two commissioners with the rank of a state ministers.
The commission can ask for clarifications, with some exceptions, in case of the authority’s reluctance to provide information to the applicants.
Between January 1 and December 31, 2012, people submitted a total of 16,475 applications – 13,921 to the government wings and 2,554 to the NGOs – for information, according to the report. Of the total, the 15,799 applicants had their requests entertained, it said.
Over 4% (676) of the applications for information were on process, said the report.
It said many of the offices were yet to appoint responsible persons to carry out the duty of entertaining the people’s application for information while many of the authorities had logistic problems.
