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The
Central Act places the main responsibility for monitoring on the
newly established Central
and State Information Commissions. This monitoring effort is
mainly focussed on producing annual reports which review the implementation
of the Act for the year. Section
25(3) details the minimum requirements for the contents of the
annual report, for example:
- the number of requests made to each public authority;
- the number of decisions where applicants were
not entitled to access to the documents pursuant to the requests,
the provisions of this Act under which the decisions were made
and the number of times such provisions were invoked;
- the number of appeals referred to the Information
Commission for review, the nature of the appeals and the outcome
of the appeals;
- particulars of any disciplinary action taken
against any officer in respect of the administration of this Act;
and
- the amount of charges collected by each public
authority under this Act;
- any facts which indicate an effort by public
authorities to implement the spirit and intention of the Act;
- recommendations for reform, including recommendations
in respect of particular public authorities, for the development,
improvement, modernisation, reform or amendment to the Act, other
legislation or the common law, or any other mater relevant for
operationalising the right to access information.
Section
25(4) requires that all Annual Reports are tabled in Parliament
and/or the State Legislature. Additionally though, annual reports
should also be put on government websites and made be available
in hard copy. They should be disseminated widely so that the public
can easily find out how well the Act is being implemented.
None
of the State Acts require the production of annual reports.
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