Noting that voluntary disclosures of information have been “below par,” a CIC-constituted panel has said that details of domestic and foreign visits of Union Ministers should be proactively disclosed and kept updated.
The committee said this against the backdrop of the PMO not disclosing information about expenses incurred on foreign visits of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Prime Minister’s Office has been refusing to disclose information related to expenses incurred on Mr. Modi’s foreign visits, citing various excuses such as the records that are sought for being “vague.”
The committee of former Chief Information Commissioner A.N. Tiwari and Information Commissioner M.M. Ansari, constituted by the CIC, gave its report on “Transparency Audit: Towards An Open and Accountable Government.”
The panel referred to the September 11, 2012 circular issued by the Ministry of Personnel where it asked all departments to proactively disclose expenses incurred on the foreign and domestic visits of Ministers.
“These disclosures should be updated once in every quarter,” the committee said asking the government to also disclose other details such as places visited and the institutions/individuals interacted with, names of the members in the official delegation, mode of conveyance, travel expenses and source of funding and outcome of the visit.
It said “a democratic government keen on empowering the people and delivering to them goods and services speedily and efficiently, cannot allow walls of secrecy to separate them from the very people they serve.”
A large number of wholly avoidable RTI petitions for information, which should even otherwise be openly available, were still being filed, it said.
