The National Council of Bhutan has decided to delay action on the Right to information Bill 2014, according to a May 29 announcement.
The National Council’s concerns about “obstruction” by the Prime Minister
are further laid out in a longer document.
The RTI bill was passed Feb. 5 by the National Assembly, the lower body, and sent to the Council, the upper body. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
The chairperson of the National Council Foreign Relations Committee announced that the members “were unanimous in recognizing the importance of the RTI Bill” but that the committee “could not get a presentation on time from the Ministry of Information and Communications.”
As a result it “could not conduct consultative meetings with relevant stakeholders and carry out in-depth study on the Bill.”
The announcement further says:
The House recognized that the procedural lapses was caused by the decision of the Committee of Secretaries during the last interim government that all government information should be routed through the Cabinet Secretary which was not in keeping with the provisions of Constitution and other laws. A resolution was passed calling the attention of the government on Obstructing the National Council from Conducting Parliamentary Duties. (Click here for the resolution)
Further, the House decided not to deliberate on the RTI Bill in this Session and voted for asking the National Assembly to withdraw the Bill. (Click here for details for proposing to withdraw the RTI Bill).
The longer explanation concludes:
The National Council appreciates the intent of RTI Bill. In fact, discussions on RTI first originated in the National Council long before it was even discussed in the first National Assembly. The National Council would like to create the best political space within parliamentary procedure to enable an important government bill being passed. However, it cannot make exceptions to the laws and parliamentary procedure, and treat RTI in isolation of the main issue of NC’s privilege of corresponding directly with government officials and agencies being repeatedly undermined by the Cabinet Secretary and CoS. Unless the issue is resolved once and for all, the situation could recur with all government bills, policy matters and issues that NC would have to review.
To vote directly on the Bill without presentations made and consultations done is not only being irresponsible and meaningless, it will also undermine people’s faith in the legislative process. Besides, the possibility of the Bill being rejected by the NC both in its sitting and the joint-sitting is quite high. Rejecting an important government Bill may send messages that are not intended. Therefore, based on Section 18 and 19 of the Legislative Rules of Procedure 2011, the National Council recommends the National Assembly to withdraw the Bill.
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