Government issues guidelines for suo motu disclosure under RTI
18 Apr, 2013In a welcome step to strengthen the Right to information (RTI) Act 2005, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions has issued the guidelines for suo motu disclosure of information by Central Government Ministries/Departments and Public Authorities thereunder.
The suo motu disclosure by various departments/ministries is dealt with in Section 4 of the RTI Act. The guidelines for the disclosure are based upon the recommendations of a task force, having representation of civil societies, central government ministries and departments and the state governments, formed by the government to ensure compliance with section 4 of the transparency act.
The fields for proactive disclosure include procurement, public private partnerships, transfer policy and transfer orders, RTI applications received and their responses, citizens’ charter and discretionary and non–discretionary grants. The nature of information would also include “the procedure followed in the decision making process” and “norms set by the public authority for the discharge of its functions”
The guidelines try to ensure that the disclosures on the websites are complete, easily accessible, technology and platform neutral and user friendly. The guidelines also provide for the compliance mechanism consisting of yearly audit of proactive disclosure made by the Ministry/Department by a third party, examination of audit reports and inclusion of compliance details in the annual report of the Ministry/Department.
For a detailed reading, please refer to the link - http://www.rtifoundationofindia.com/dopt/Suo_moto_disclosure-15042013.pdf