questions to ask Make payment in favor of Accounts Officer

[drgvrao 13]

Friends

 

I think we should insist upon the CIC to make it mandatory for all Government Departments (under State and Central Governments) to accept payments for provision of information made in favor of the Accounts Officer of respective Department. I have faced situations where the payment is accepted only if drawn in favor of the Director or PIO etc. I think its worthwhile to deliberate on this. Further organisations are not accepting personal cheques towards fees for provision of copies of documents. Atleast the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics at Hyderabad does not accept. Why should a citizen be penalised for paying commission charges to the bank which is sometimes more than the actual charges to be paid. CIC should further make amendments to RTI Act so that the National Electronic Funds Transfer/Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT/EFT) system is adopted for easy transfer of fees. This is a system whereby anyone who wants to make payment to another person / company etc. can approach his bank and give instructions / authorisation to transfer funds directly from his account to the bank account of the receiver / beneficiary. CIC should amend rules so that complete details such as the Public authorities name, bank account number, account type (savings or current account), bank name, city, branch name, etc., should be furnished to the citizen while seeking fees for provision of documents at the time of replying to the citizen seeking information. We need to seriously pursue such matters which is convinient for all of us. .

[karira 5,897]

Dr Venkateshwar,

 

Regarding payment of application fees by DD/BC/IPO in favour of "Accounts Officer", there are several circulars/notifications from DoPT in this regard. But no one in the Government seems to even read these notifications, leave alone follow or implement them.

 

Several of them are posted in the "RTI Act and Circulars" section of this forum.

 

In fact there is one circular which even says:

 

"If a Public Authority does not have any officer by the designation of Accounts Officer, a officer may be specially designated as such for the purpose of receiving application fees under the RTI act" !

 

A applicant "Complained" to the CIC in this matter, but CIC turned around and said that they cannot issue instructions to Public Authorities to follow DoPT circulars. DoPT themselves should do it. Please see:

 

 

http://www.rtiindia.org/forum/7826-central-information-commission-asks-secretary-dopt-ensure-dopt-instructions-complied-all-organs-government.html

 

That is where the matter lies at present and I am sure DoPT will sleep over it for ever.

 

Regarding the other suggested alternative of NEFT/EFT transfer, it is not a workable solution at this stage. This facility is not available in all bank branches in the rural areas. The Government (Central and States) has not even been able to publish a consolidated list of APIO's/PIO's and AA's, so it is very far fetched to even think that they will be able to publish a list of Account details for every Public Authority in the country. Just for your information, in AP there are 1,76,000 PIO's. For that matter, there is no consolidated list of PA's in the country as of now !

 

The best would be to accept Postal Stamp of Rs. 10 as application fee. Just ask the applicant to paste a postal stamp on his application. These stamps are available everywhere, easy to obtain and all the applicant needs to keep is a photocopy of the application with the stamp on it. Some RTI Activists are trying for this also, but in vain.

 

As far as your problem with Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagonistics, I suggest you can file another RTI Application asking for the following information :

 

1. Name. designation, address of Officer who decide this mode of payment and the payees name

2. If the PA has on record the various DoPT circulars on the subject of payees name being "Accounts Officer"

3. Which Officers in the PA saw those circulars and the date they saw them

4. What is the action being taken against officers who ignore and defy DoPT circulars

5. How many DoPT circulars actually received by the PA

6. How many have been implemented and followed ?

7. Reasons under Sec 4(1)(d) for not implementing or not following some of the circulars/notifications, etc of DoPT.

 

Maybe that will wake them up.

[sandeepbaheti 106]

A applicant "Complained" to the CIC in this matter, but CIC turned around and said that they cannot issue instructions to Public Authorities to follow DoPT circulars. DoPT themselves should do it.

 

In that case the appellant/complainant should ask them to enforce Rules 3 and 4 of the Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005 which says the same thing.

[karira 5,897]

In that case the appellant/complainant should ask them to enforce Rules 3 and 4 of the Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005 which says the same thing.

 

Does CIC have the power to enforce RTI Rules ?

[sandeepbaheti 106]

It is the duty of CIC to see that information is disseminated in accordance with the provisions of the Act. RTI rules framed under the Act are part of the provisions of the Act and it is the duty of CIC to see that these rules are followed.

 

Say if someone pays the application fees by way of court fees, CIC will promptly reject the appeal saying this is not a valid mode of payment of fees. Now the Act does not specify any mode of payment. The mode of payment is prescribed in the rules. So in effect, CIC is enforcing the RTI rules in this case.

Now RTI rules also specify that IPO/DD should be payable to Accounts Officer. If CIC can enforce RTI rules in the earlier case then why not in this case?