DoPT accepts CIC panel push towards open, accountable government

NEW DELHI: The government needs to do away with a secrecy-dominated organisational approach and initiate an “open government”, a two-member panel formed by the Central Information Commission has said in its report. The committee has recommended that each government department should declare open and negative lists of information and proactively publish updated information on websites.

The two-member committee, comprising former CIC AN Tiwari and former information commissioner MM Ansari, has submitted a critical 150-page report “Transparency Audit towards an Open and Accountable Government” to CIC and department of personnel and training ( DoPT). The committee was formed last year and was mandated to see how government departments are faring in proactive disclosure of information, the quality of disclosure and how to conduct a third-party transparency audit of the government.



The committee’s report, which was accepted by DoPT on Monday, says the proactive disclosure by departments under Section 4 of RTI Act is lacking. The committee has cited the example of National Data Sharing Accessibility Policy, which has a negative list.

The report says, “Possibly, time is now for all several transparency related initiatives to be brought under a common umbrella in the form of ‘open government initiative’, which should result in an unambiguous announcement by the government about its commitment to open government through transparency in all its functions, except those, which for specific reasons, must remain secret.