KP Right to Information Act 2013

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KP Right to Information Act 2013:

A Briefing Gulbaz Ali Khan

Senior Manager-Governance & CD

Citizen Engagement for Social Service Delivery

Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa


What is Social Accountability

• It is an approach towards building accountability that relies on civic engagement, i.e., in which it is ordinary citizens and/or civil society organizations who participate directly or indirectly in exacting accountability (WB 2004)

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Why Social Accountability?

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Social Accountability

Good Governance

Development Effectiveness

Empowerment


Social Accountability Tools

• Election Monitoring• Participatory budgeting• Public Expenditure Tracking• Public feedback mechanisms like Social Audits• Community/citizen monitoring of over-all performance of

public agencies, e.g. through Citizen Report Cards and Community Scorecards

• Public disclosure initiatives• Right to information

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What is Right to Information?

• Access to information is the cornerstone to good governance, meaningful participation, increasing transparency and is recognized as a fundamental human right

• Freedom of information legislation comprises laws that guarantee access to data held by the state. They establish a "right-to-know" legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions.

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What is Right to Information?

• The right of access to information detained by government officials gives that citizens have a basic human right to demand information held by government bodies.

• RTI legislations endorse two ways of information sharing:

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Reactive disclosure

Proactive dissemination


A Powerful Social Accountability Tool: Right to Information:

• The Right to information is considered a powerful tool to ensure social accountability as:

– It facilitates a constructive engagement between public authorities and citizens.

– It addresses the response and voice aspects of governance.

– It’s a tool for checking :• Corruption, abuse of power and mismanagement among public

bodies, contributing directly to advancing the agenda on good governance

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Journey of RTI-Global & Pakistan

• Originated in Sweden in 1766 which provide access to information to journalists

• UN Accepted this as fundamental human right in 1946• More than 96 countries have RTI laws

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KP Right To Information Act

• RTI Law has been passed by KP assembly on October 31, 2013 and Governor assented on November 04, 2013 (KP Assembly)

• The law bestows the right to access to any information or record held by a body. It also states that it facilitates and encourages the disclosure of information, promptly and at the lowest reasonable cost.

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What kind of information is available?

• Maintenance and indexing of public records • Publication and availability of records

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Annual Reporting & PIOs

• Public body is bound to prepare an annul report featuring state of RTI implementation and submit to – Speaker of KP Assembly – Information Commission

• All the public bodies will designate public information officer within 120 days from the date of commencement of this act

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What citizen can not access?

• This law also restricts access to information on a) international relations & security, b) disclosure harmful to law enforcement, c) public economic affairs, d) policy making, e) privacy, f) legal privilege, and g) commercial and confidential information.

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Process of disposal of information request

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Citizen file an information request

Acknowledgement By Information

Officer

Information Granted (10 days

extendable to 20 days)

Information Rejected

Complaint lodged

with Information Commission

Information already

provided and/or

available proactively

Decision by Information Commission

within 60 days


What if information is denied?

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Daily fine of PKR 250/- per day up to PKR 25000 imposed on public official


What constitutes Information Commission?

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•Members shall hold offices for a term of 3 years•Members shall not hold office after they have attained age of 65 years •A member can be removed through majority vote (2 out of 3) in case he/she fails to attend 3 consecutive meetings without any cause


How Information Commission can be instrumental?

• Primary function is to receive and decide upon the complaints

• In addition to this:– Set rules and minimum standards on record management – Designate further categories of proactive disclosure (Website) – Adopt a schedule of fee (information requests) – Compile a user-friendly manual in Urdu and English (4 all) – Compile a comprehensive on its activities, audited accounts and

state of implementation in public bodies (course correction)

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How Information Commission can be instrumental?

• The commission has powers to – monitor and report the compliance, – make recommendations on reforms and

comments on legislations, and – facilitate and/or support training activities for

public officials and – publicize the requirements and rights of the

citizens

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THANK YOU

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KP Right to Information Act 2013

Economy & Finance

Transcript of KP Right to Information Act 2013