According to the Act, every office should appoint IOs to provide and manage information for public dissemination.
A study conducted by National Vigilance Centre made public today at a convention on Right to Information organised by Freedom Forum here in the capital revealed that there are only 351 IOs for 9,000 public offices.
Twelve districts do not have IOs and even diplomatic missions except for Moscow, UN and Bangkok lack IOs.
The lack of IOs at public institutions speaks volumes of the right to information situation. The Right to Information concept was meant to deliver good governance and accountability of people in power, according to Sher Bahadur Dhungana, spokesperson, National Vigilance Centre.
Secretary of Ministry of Information and Communication Sushil Ghimire said the culture of accountability and transparency in information is lacking in government services.
“Either IOs are not appointed or the officers are chosen from staff who are capable of hiding information. This is another reality at public offices,” said Ghimire.
Chief Information Commissioner of Nepal Vinaya Kasaju, Chief Information Commissioner of Bangladesh Muhammad Zamir, Central Information Commissioner of India Shailesh Gandhi, Adviser of Civil Service Commissioner of Afghanistan Rahela Sidiqui, Pakistan’s former Minister Ahsan Iqbal and other dignitaries of SAARC countries shared their views and RTI situations in their countries.
President Dr Ram Baran Yadav had inaugurated the programme today morning.
Model Call Centre
A model of a call centre in Bihar pursuing the Right to Information, won the hearts of participants at a convention here in Kathmandu on Monday. The call centre Janakari, that aims to ensure the right to information and good governance began in 2007 and over 40 per cent of the population, mostly illiterate and people with limited means get services with just a phone call. Chief Information Commissioner of Bihar AK Chaudhari presented the success story of Janakari, which won National e-Governance Award of India for 2008-09, at the two-day national conference organised by Freedom Forum. Chaudhary, said there are two phone numbers one for complaint registration and another for information, which records the voice and transcribes it in Hindi when the speaker gives the message. Service seekers get the service within 34 days. In case they are not provided the service, they will be called by the call centre after a period to confirm the service.
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Quelle/Source: The Himalayan Times, 29.03.2011
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