Right to Information Bill to be gazetted soon
Cabinet this week passed a Right of Access to Information Bill which will ensure citizens the right to obtain information from a “public authority” subject to certain exceptions.
A public authority has been defined as a ministry, any office established by the Constitution (other than the Companies Act), a department, public corporation, a company in which the state holds 25 per cent of the shares or more, a local authority, a private entity carrying out a public function in agreement with a government body or local authority, Provincial Councils, NGOs that are “substantially funded” by the government or by a foreign government or international organisation rendering a service to the public, higher educational institutions including private universities and professional institutions, all courts and tribunals.
A ‘citizen’ includes a body whether incorporated or unincorporated, if not less than three-fourths of the members are citizens. The bill is expected to be gazetted shortly, said Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne, Chair of the committee that drew up the law.
He also said it will be published online. Once gazetted, it will be circulated among the provincial councils as constitutionally required, as it affects subjects that have been devolved to the provinces.
The proposed law, however, denies access to information relating to personal information that is an unwarranted invasion of privacy unless the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information, the disclosure of information that would undermine the defence of the state or national security, would be prejudicial to Sri Lanka’s relations with foreign states or international agreements, information that would be seriously prejudicial to the economy, exchange rates, banking, taxation, private medical records, professional communications, the disclosure of information that would cause grave prejudice to the detection of crime, exposing a confidential source in relation to law enforcement, information that would be in contempt of court or parliamentary privilege or would harm the integrity of an examination conducted by the Department of Examinations or a higher educational institution.
RTI legislation was first introduced in a bill by the UNP administration in 2004 but could not be passed into law as Parliament was prematurely dissolved that year. Sri Lanka would have been the first country in South Asia to have this progressive legislation.
Today all South Asian countries have this law, except Sri Lanka. An RTI law was pledged within 100 days of the new administration winning the January 8 Presidential election.
The bill provides for the establishment of a Right to Information Commission and for the appointment of Information Officers. The law makes it the duty of every public authority to maintain all its records “duly catalogued and indexed”.
An Information Officer shall, “as expeditiously as possible and in any case within fourteen working days” of the receipt of a request for information “make a decision either to provide the information requested on the payment of a fee…or to reject the request…and shall forthwith communicate such decision to the citizen who made the request”.
The RTI Commission consists of five members appointed by the President upon recommendation by the Constitutional Council.
They will be drawn from the Bar Association of Sri Lanka’, organisations of publishers, editors and media persons; and “other civil society organisations”.
The duties and functions of the Commission includes monitoring the performance and ensuring the due compliance by public authorities of the duties cast on the under the RTI Act.
It has the power to direct a public authority to provide information; to direct a public authority to publish any information withheld by a public authority from the public (subject to the exemptions clause); and to hear and determine any appeals made to it by any aggrieved person; among other things.
Dr. Wickramaratne said the bill is likely to be presented to Parliament in the early part of 2016.