754 public authorities got suo motu disclosure audited in 2020-21: Govt

New Delhi: Only 754 out of the total 2,275 public authorities got their suo motu disclosure audited by third party during 2020-21 as mandated in the guidelines issued under the Right to Information Act, the Centre said on Thursday.

It is the obligation and responsibility of public authorities (government organisations/departments) to undertake the suo motu disclosure as mandated under Section 4(1)(b) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

In terms of Section 4(2) of the RTI Act, it shall be a constant endeavour of every public authority to take steps to provide as much information suo motu to the public at regular intervals through various means of communications, including internet, so that the public have minimum resort to the use of this Act to obtain information, he said.

With a view to ensure implementation of the provisions of Section 4 of the RTI Act, 2005, existing guidelines provide for third party audit of proactive disclosure by public authority, Singh said.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has also prepared a software for transparency audit to facilitate the public authorities (PAs) to conduct third party audit, he said.

During 2020-21, a total of 754 public authorities (PAs) out of 2,275 PAs got their suo motu disclosure audited by third party and the outcome was shared with the PAs, Singh said.

A total of 715 PAs out of 2,193 PAs got their suo motu disclosure audited by third party in 2019-20 and the outcome was shared with the PAs, the minister added.