Neither the Information Commission nor the government machinery is ready to deliver the services to the citizens under the Right to Information Act though it was enacted nearly 18 months back, said officials.
Short of manpower, the three-member commission can hardly function on its own, they said.
Field level offices under different ministries have just started sending names of the designated officials to the Information Commission.
The government is yet to set up the Information Delivery Unit required by the Right to Information Act, which came into force on July 1, 2009.
The government approved 76 personnel for the Information Commission, information commissioner Mohammad Abu Taher told New Age on Monday.
He, however, said that the commission, lacking the rules and regulations, could not recruit the personnel.
The commission, he said, had now 23 personnel including support staff and drivers.
He said the commission was framing the rules for recruitment.
The establishment ministry, he said, sent six officers to the commission for day-to-day work.
It is in this backdrop that Bangladesh celebrates the International Right to Know Day today.
Civil society organisations have announced that they would launch a campaign to make the people aware of their right to know at a time when the authorities are apparently delaying the citizens’ access to information ignoring the law.
It took the nation by shock and surprise, when prime minister’s health adviser Syed Modasser Ali recently said that the government was not bound to provide information to journalists.
Modasser Ali said the heath department had been directed to provide no information to the media.
The right to information law, as introduced by the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed on October 20, 2008, stipulated that the citizens had the right to get information and, in case of refusal, they could lodge complaints against the concerned officials with the Information Commission.
The commission received names of approximately 5,500 officials designated for providing information to the citizens on demand, Taher said.
The NGOs and development organisations are yet to designate their officials for the purpose.
The commission, said Taher, received names from various ministries and departments.
But, he said, the deputy commissioners were also sending names of the designated officials.
The commission, he said, would mention their names in its web portal under preparation.
A retired secretary, Taher said, though a quasi-judicial body, the commission would not be able to function until it got the required manpower.
Just like most of the citizens, many government officials, he said, too were unaware of the right to information law.
The chief information commissioner Muhammad Zamir said on Wednesday the deputy commissioners of sixty-four districts had informed the commission that they were unable to train the designated public officials on the RTI due to lack of funds.
