Dogged by a slew of challenges, the Information Commission seeks power to draw contempt of court proceedings against errant party to effectively implement the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
“It’s possible to implement the Right to Information (RTI) Act effectively by empowering the commission to draw contempt of court proceedings against errant party and with other time-befitting and effective systems,” the Commission says in its annual report-2013.
The existing law allows the commission only to impose fine from to Tk 50 to Tk 5,000 for violation of its rules.
Five years into its formation and the emergence of the Right to Information Act, the Information Commission in its annual report identified 16 challenges for it to implement the act.
Lack of awareness about the Act among people and the culture of procrastination to provide information are among the major challenges to implement the RTI Act, according to the annual report. As per the report, lack of strict monitoring, manpower shortage in government offices at district level, inadequate fund allocations for government offices to gather and furnish information, ambiguity and limitations in the RTI Act, inadequate publicity about the law, lack of publishing information spontaneously, not-appointment of designated officers to all offices, lack of giving information willingly and reluctance about practicing the RTI Act are the challenges the Commission facing in implementing the law.
Lack of interest among journalists and media people to use the RTI act, inadequate arrangement for preserving information, lack of clear idea of the designated officer as well as appellate authority, dependency on higher authority to provide information and lack of logistic support in the offices of the designated officer were also mentioned as challenges the commission facing.
