KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 4
Many local levels in the country have yet to appoint information officer at their office for dissemination of information of public concern to the citizens and media.
According to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, it recently directed local levels to designate one of their employees as information officer and post his/her personal details with contact number and photograph on the official website.
Section 6 of the Right to Information Act, 2007 states that each public body shall arrange an information officer for the purpose of disseminating information held in its office. It also requires the chief of the public body to regularly provide information held in the office to the information officer to facilitate the latter in disseminating specified data or information to the service-seeker on demand. The act also stipulates a provision of an information section in each public body.
Around 450 out of 753 local levels have only designated information officers. Even after 14 years of the implementation of the act, many local levels and other public bodies are yet to designate information officers to provide information to the public as per the constitution and prevalent law which ensure citizen's right to information.
"As many local levels are still found to be functioning without information officer, they were requested to abide by the existing law and designate one of their employees as an information officer and publish his/her details on the official website as soon as possible," said a section officer at the MoFAGA .
It is expedient to implement the mandatory provision of information officer in local governments to protect sensitive information of the office and ensure the citizens' right to information for enhanced transparency of their activities by making the office-bearers and employees accountable and responsible to the citizens, he informed.
Earlier, the National Information Commission had warned that many public bodies were being run without assigning any staffer as information officer. According to the NIC, the citizens have the right to demand and obtain information held by public bodies on any matter of public importance. Both the information provider and receiver are equally responsible for implementation of the right to information.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 5, 2021 of The Himalayan Times.
