COLOMBO: Presidential, Prime Ministerial, and Speaker’s Offices, along with the Parliament and other government institutions, are reportedly failing to properly provide information in response to requests made by citizens under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
A local weekend newspaper highlights this issue, stating that information requests sent by a correspondent to the Presidential Secretariat, Prime Minister’s Office, Speaker’s Office, and Parliament in July have so far received no response from any of these three institutions.
Among the withheld information are details concerning the President’s staff, private advisors, the Clean Sri Lanka project, and a report on 329 containers. Similarly, information regarding the Prime Minister’s staff and vehicle auctions has also not been provided.
A request for information on the Speaker’s staff was denied, citing parliamentary privileges. However, it is noteworthy that a previous Court of Appeal ruling (CA/RTI/0004/2021) on RTI matters affirmed that Members of Parliament are not a special group and must operate under the country’s law, as public representatives appointed by the people and accountable to them.
Furthermore, the functioning of the Right to Information Commission has been hampered due to incomplete membership. Although the Constitutional Council reportedly approved a nominee for a vacant commissioner position and forwarded the name to the President over two weeks ago, the President has yet to make the appointment.
Experts in the field and legal scholars point out that three of the current commissioners are lawyers, and the President has the authority to appoint one of them as the Chairman of the Commission.
With the position of Chairman of the RTI Commission vacant for over six months, the Young Journalists’ Forum and the Diyatasa Sanvidanaya filed a fundamental rights case in the Supreme Court on the 29th, alleging that the President’s failure to make this appointment violates the fundamental rights of the people.
Additionally, journalist R.B.J. Suranga and others filed a complaint with the Human Rights Commission last week (HRC/HO/2228/25), stating that the RTI Commission is delaying decisions, citing the lack of a chairman as a reason.
In response to these concerns, several media organizations have sent a letter to the President, urging him to take action to strengthen the Right to Information and to expedite the pending appointments to the Right to Information Commission.
