PREPARING FOR IMPLEMENTATION

Setting Up Information Commissions: Employing Staff

The Central Act specifically permits the employment of staff as may be necessary to discharge the Commission's duties. The staffing model for each Information Commission will need to reflect the decisions finally made about the set up of the Information Commission - ie. Whether there will be regional offices? How Information Commissioners will make decisions - independently or together? Whether staff will be delegated research and/or investigation and/or decision-making powers (at least in simple cases)?

In accordance with international best practice, consideration may be given to employing more staff to do support work for the Commissioners, which could cut down their workload and leave them to do only the key decision-making. This could improve efficiency while minimising costs. This is what happens in the United Kingdom and Canada, for example, where Information Commissioners delegate many investigatory and decision-making powers. Note also that the Indian Information Commissions are also responsible for monitoring implementation, which means that staff will need to be allocated to this task as well.

Consideration should also be given to where staff will be drawn from, specifically, whether staff will all be seconded from the public service or whether the Information Commissions can recruit specialist staff with particularly useful skills from outside the public service. For maximum efficiency - particularly in the early days - it would be useful if staff with relevant experience and expertise could be recruited from outside the public service who would have the capacity to start work immediately. This would reduce the amount of training necessary for Commission staff and would also strengthen the (perceived) independence of the Commission. The approach to staffing should be flexible, to ensure maximum access by the public, timely disposal of appeals and to keep costs within budget.