Security agencies, paramilitary forces at bottom in CIC Audit

NEW DELHI: Thirteen years after the Right to Information (RTI) Act was notified, central ministries, security agencies and paramilitary forces are still shirking the responsibility of proactively sharing basic information with the public, a transparency audit has found.

The audit of 963 public authorities, commissioned by the Central Information Commission (CIC) and conducted by the Indian Law Institute, has graded almost all security agencies poorly. The audit has been accessed by ET exclusively through file inspection under the RTI Act.

Earlier, the CIC had shared broad details of grading, without divulging the ratings, which showed that the central ministries were faltering.


The audit has graded all public authorities between A and D, with A being the best and D the poorest in terms of quality of proactive disclosure to the public on websites.

Security agencies and paramilitary forces have fared the lowest in the audit. Department of Home, BSF, CISF, CRPF, Department of Higher Education, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Cabinet Secretariat and Department of Expenditure under finance ministry have scored a poor D rating, the file inspection of 23 volumes of documents revealed.

The public authorities were ranked on disclosures such as organisational charts, quality of information divulged to public, citizen charter, particulars of recipients of concessions, categories of documents held by the ministry, information on subsidy programmes and procedures followed in decision-making.

The file inspection revealed that security agencies had revealed only basic information such as details of public information officers and disposal of RTI applications. Cabinet Secretariat scored a poor 38.04% marks and ranked D as it had not disclosed important policies or decisions that affect the common man, particulars of concessions and permits, and authorisations granted.

The best faring ministries in disclosure of information are the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER), with a score of 92%, Department of Space with 88.13%, tourism ministry with 83.89%, Department of Biotechnology with 83.81%, external affairs ministry with 81.25% and the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation with 80.95%. The audit has set these ministries apart as their documents held are proactively disclosed, quasi-judicial decisions taken are revealed and websites are updated regularly.