Department of Personnel and Training A presentation on Proactive disclosures under the RTI Act, 2005 By Devesh Chaturvedi Joint Secretary Department of Personnel and Training

“Let the people know the facts, the country would be safe” Abraham Lincoln

Legislative questions Pre RTI regime Official Secrets Act “Hold on to information until there are pressing reasons to divulge” Legislative questions Leakages Using corrupt means The information was obtained through

“ Reveal information unless there is pressing reasons to withhold ” Post RTI “ Reveal information unless there is pressing reasons to withhold ” Act has been passed with an objective that people have a right to access information

Legal Provisions for Proactive Disclosures Section 4 of the Act makes its obligatory for all the Public Authorities (PA) to keep more and more official information in public domain. Section 4 (1)(a) – PA to maintain all records catalogued/indexed for convenient access. To be computerised and connected through network.

Legal Provisions Section 4 (1)(b) was obligation to publish within 120 days of the enactment various information related to the organisation – thereafter update them every year. Section 4 (1)(c) PAs to publish all relevant facts while formulating important policies for announcing the decisions which affect public.

Legal Provisions Section 4 (1) (d) – PAs shall provide reasons for its administrative or quasi judicial decisions to affected persons. Section 4 (2) – To provide as much information suo-motu ............ Through various channels of communications ......... So that public have minimum resort to the use of this Act.

Guidelines vide OM dated 15.04.2013- salient features Policy Directives Guidelines vide OM dated 15.04.2013- salient features Information related to Public Procurements Information related to PPP agreements Transfer Policy/Transfer orders RTI applications and their replies (provided they do not concern personal information of individual) Discretionary/non-discretionary Grants to States/NGOs etc Official foreign tours of Ministers/officials of Joint Secy level & above Decision-making processes/structures- Budget allocation Disclosure on official websites with “user perspective” Third party audit by Organisation to be done annually CIC may conduct sample audits Appointment of Nodal Officer in each Organisation

Policy Directives Based on the recommendations of Committee of Experts- Sri AN Tewari and Dr MM Ansari, OM dated 30.06.2017 was issued: Constitution of Consultative Committees of stakeholders to advise on what to be disclosed Suo motu Setting up of Information and Facilitation Centres Committee of PIO/FAA setup to identify frequently sought information so that they can be kept in public domain Information on websites in categorised , organised in easily searchable mode for easy retrieval . Information should carry date on which it was published/uploaded.

Transparency in JEE Mains/JEE Advance Some Positive Impacts Transparency in JEE Mains/JEE Advance Disclosure of answer keys Opportunity of challenge Disclosure of OMR Sheets Disclosure of marks obtained/ minimum cut offs Disclosure of status of Performance Appraisal Reports of Officers. Disclosure of beneficiaries data base for all welfare schemes of Government

Challenges Obligations on Public Authorities, but no provisions for enforcement Effectiveness depends on initiative taken by individual officers in the Public Authority Rapid expansion of information on official websites which may or may not be user friendly. Conduct of regular third Party Audits

Sensitisation of Public Authorities that more dissemination will lead to reduced RTI related workload The way forward Independent assessment of performance of Public Authorities on the qualities of disclosure – e.g. Transparency Index of CIC Involvement of internal and external stakeholders for deciding what to disclose

“जो सवाल आए उनका हम analysis करते हैं, तो हमें पता चलेगा कि policy matter के कारण यह समस्‍या बार-बार उठ रही है, लोग सवाल पूछ रहे हैं ...…… एक RTI का छोटा सा सवाल भी आपको policy बदलने के लिए मजबूर कर सकता है” “जब चीजें online होने लगती है, तो अपने आप transparency आती है ..….. अगर transparency है तो trust आता ही है .......चीजों को जितना online करते जाएंगे, जितना open करते जाएंगे, सवालिया निशान कम होते जाएंगे ” माननीय प्रधानमंत्री जी  के भाषण का अंश केंद्रीय सूचना आयोग का वार्षिक सम्मेलन, वर्ष 2015