File on financial powers of CIC untraceable: DoPT

A crucial file related to delegation of financial powers to Chief Information Commissioner is untraceable in the Department of Personnel and Training, an RTI reply from the Government said.
According to the RTI Act, only Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) has financial, administrative and general superintendence powers.
An RTI activist Lokesh Batra had sought to know from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) about the file on which delegation of financial power by Central Government to Chief Information Commissioner in 2005-06 was processed.
In response, the DoPT said, the concerned file no 1/42/2005-IR was not traceable. "However, the present file in which the above matter is being dealt with is 4/26/2007-IR."

Batra said how can the initial key files of DoPT and CIC regarding 'Placing Infrastructure to Central Information Commission' be allowed to go missing. "These file are of historic nature," he said.
"If the initial file of 2005 on which Financial Powers for Chief Information Commissioner were approved by the then Finance Minister (FM) were not traceable, then on what basis DoPT has recorded in current file that the conferring Financial Powers to 'Chief Information Commissioner' initially in 2006 was 'inadvertent'," Batra said.
The working of the transparency panel Central Information Commissioner has come to a halt as the post of Chief Information Commission is lying vacant since August 22, 2014.