The authorities should not have any problem disclosing information as long as there is transparency and accountability in public work. If any government official or authorities dilly dally in providing information, generally there is some mystery.
The government passed the Right to Information Act in 2009 to ensure the rights of the citizens to avail information. As per this act, the government organisations are bound to provide the citizens information that is no threat to the security and sovereignty of the country.
But our government officials always try to conceal any information from the public. A report in Prothom Alo on 20 May reveals the reluctance of government officials in providing information related to projects and funds. As per the information commission’s annual report of 2023 submitted to the national parliament, people filed a total of 686 complaints to the commission for failing to get information from relevant government authorities.
The commission took into cognisance 324 complaints. The most complaints, a total of 52, were made after not getting information relating to projects. Of the complaints, 29 were made after not getting information relating to funds, 17 were related to tender and 12 were about recruitment.
A total of 106 types of complaints were made to the information commission. The commission took into cognizance 360 complaints in 2022. Of the complaints, 25 were about government allocation and sector wise spending, 23 were about projects. This comparison proves that the government officials’ propensity to hide information has increased.
The Prothom Alo report has brought out experiences of a resident of Khagrachhari and a journalist of Sherpur. The Khagrachhari resident applied to the executive engineer and an official of RTI in the district on 10 April in 2023 seeking specific information about development projects of five fiscal years carried out under the road and highways department. But he did not get the information. As a result of his complaint, the commission asked the information officer to provide the information and warned the executive engineer for the future.
Journalist Shafiuzzaman landed in jail as he sought information at upazila nirbahi officer’s (UNO) office at Nakla upazila in Sherpur last March. The information commission recommended departmental action against the UNO.
We hail this move by the commission. But we also want to maintain that only issuing directives would not suffice in ensuring people’s right to avail information, rather those who won’t comply should be brought to book. The commission in several incidents in the past had slapped fines on responsible officers.
Those in different government organisations must understand that getting information is a basic right of the citizens that none can deprive them of. The information of the state belongs to people, not anything exclusive to those in charge.
There are questions about transparency and accountability of different development projects. These questions can only be answered when the relevant organisations will provide information. Transparency International Bangladesh’s (TIB) executive director Iftekharuzzaman said development projects are one of the major sources of corruption in the country. Why do the relevant officials not want to provide information if they are so honest?
We seek proper investigation of all the incidents reported in the annual report of the information commission and punishment of all who are responsible in these incidents.