The non-government organisations that launched the movement to enact the Right to Information Act are now lagging behind the government organisations in providing information. This is not a careless comment. The anti-corruption body Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) disclosed this in a study.
TIB on Thursday published a study titled 'An assessment of willingly disclosing information by the government and non-government organisations in accordance with the RTI'. The finding is not good news for the NGOs. TIB randomly selected 192 government and non-government organisations for the study. Websites of these organisations have been assessed through 25 indicators. The study was carried out between August 2020 and January this year. The indicators include the organisations' method of work, funding and decision-making the process. The assessment is based on the scope, accessibility and functionality of information.
The TIB findings have been categorised as satisfactory, inadequate and worrying. According to their assessment, most of the government organisations obtained better score than the non-government organisations. Design of websites and style of publishing information of most of the government organisations are almost the same. But such similar design format is not found in the case of NGOs. Still in case of NGOs, there is a deficiency in the practice of publishing information in accordance with the act and rules.
About the findings of the study, TIB executive director Ifthekharuzzaman said it is expected that the government and non-government organisations will play an active role in implementing RTI as they played role in enacting the act. After eleven years since the enactment of the act, an opportunity for getting information has been created, but it is not satisfactory.
As per the scores obtained by the government and non-government organisations, some 37 per cent of the government organisations obtained satisfactory score (above 67pc) while no non-government organisations got satisfactory scores. On the contrary, scores of 8.5 per cent of government organisations and 94.8 per cent of NGOs are worrying.
The NGOs and the civil society had a significant role in enacting RTI in 2009. Under pressure of their demand, the caretaker government led by Fakhruddin Ahmed initiated a move to enact the law. However, the law was enacted during the Awami League regime. The purpose of the law was to establish the right of the people to get information and ensure accountability of both government and NGOs.
People have right to get any information other than that related to the state security. The NGOs work for the welfare of the people and demand transparency and accountability from the government. This should be reflected in their own work. The more that information of all organisations including the government and NGOs will be disclosed, the better will be the possibility of establishing good governance in the country.