Transparency watchdog faces criticism for poor data keeping

Founded as a transparency and information dissemination watchdog, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has received flak from the government for apparently publishing wrong data on RTI appeals and complaints which were to be used in Parliament questions.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has raised the issue of discrepancy between the figures published by CIC on its website and actual figures of disposal of RTI appeals and complaints received at the Commission.
The DoPT needed these figures from the CIC to furnish response to a Lok Sabha starred question on December 5, 2012 raised by BJP MPs Virender Kashyap and Virendra Kumar on implementation of RTI Act.

Officials handling the matter were left stunned when they found that as per the receipt and disposal shown on the officials website of the CIC as on April 2012 a total number of 28,136 appeals and complaints were pending for disposal.
"However, if the appeals and complaints pending with individual registry of all the nine Commissioners and Chief Information Commissioner were summed up the number was 16,319 as on May 31, 2012," the official noted on the file.
The file notings were furnished in response to an RTI application filed by Hyderabad-based activist C J Karira.
When contacted over phone, Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra said he was not aware of the matter but would react after seeing all the related documents on Monday.

"The figures of receipt of appeals and complaints in the Central Information Commission and their disposal have been a matter of debate between this department and the CIC," the official noted.