Compliance with RTI Act crucial for foreign financing

Large infrastructure projects of the Government are often financed by foreign loans and grants. When the amount exceeds $ 100,000, the law requires information about the projects to be disclosed to the public online. 

However, compliance with the law is poor. In 2024, the Government has disclosed only 40% of the required information on foreign-financed projects.

This was revealed in the 2024 update of Infrastructure Watch, which is a dashboard on PublicFinance.LK – Sri Lanka’s premier economic insights platform.This platform has tracked Government compliance with the RTI Act’s proactive disclosure requirements since 2022.

Corruption in public spending is often linked to public procurement. The dashboard shows that disclosure of procurement related information for foreign financed projects was even less – only 20% of what the law requires.

Verité Research Director and Economist Subhashini Abeysinghe says: “Foreign lenders can help improve transparency by linking their project financing to Government compliance with the Right to Information Act.”  Improving transparency is not only in the interest of the Sri Lankan public but also benefits lenders and contractors involved in these projects. Abeysinghe says: “Greater transparency not only fosters fair competition and reduces risk of corruption, but also minimises reputational risks for lenders and contractors of being implicated in corrupt practices.”

Section 9 of the RTI Act and the guidelines published by the RTI commission mandate the proactive disclosure of information under five broad categories: project details, rationale and beneficiaries, budget and financial details, approvals and clearances, and procurement and contracts.

The 2024 assessment looked at compliance in relation to 50 large infrastructure projects. The dashboard can be accessed by visiting https://dashboards.publicfinance.lk/infrastructure-watch/.