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       Thailand's Information Law
By: Nakorn Serirak
July 28, 2000

BANGKOK - -It has been only two years since the Thai information law, the Official Information Act, B.E. 2540 (1997)(OIA), came into effect. The Act, however, has become more popular and has been widely accepted as useful to the public. It has contributed to the country's political reform agenda even as it has also shaken the traditional bureaucratic system. The law plays a significant role in changing the attitude of Thai government servants toward the official information administration.

Background
The OIA was first drafted by the government under Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun, the so-called "transparency government," and had to wait for the approval by parliament in July 1997. It became effective on December 9, 1997.

The principle behind the OIA is the guarantee of the people's right to have full access to government information. According to the Act, almost all official data and information should be revealed to the public, while only some categories of information that the State can still keep confidential are exempted from disclosure. Should the State agency refuse to data, citizens still have the right to appeal to the Official Information Commission.

The OIA ensures the people's right to access government information, and this includes the right to inspect, to request for a copy, to have advice, to make a complaint and appeal, to ask the State to correct or change personal information. Such right is bestowed upon any individual whether he has any involvement or relation with the information he requests.

This new principle turned down the conventions and traditional practices of State officials whose had always believed that government information must be kept strictly and confidentially for official uses only. Officials had traditionally responded to public demand for access with the attitude that information disclosure was the exception while most data were kept secret.

State Agency Duties on Information Disclosure
According to the OIA, State agencies—i.e. central administration, provincial administration, local administration, state enterprise, government agency attached to the National Assembly, courts but only with respect to affairs unassociated with the trial and adjudication of cases, professional supervisory organization, independent agency of the State, and such other agency as prescribed in the Ministerial Regulation—are supposed to disclose information through three mechanisms:

A. Publish the following official information in the Government Gazette:
      1. the structure and organization of its operation;
      2. the summary of important powers and duties and operational methods;
      3. a contacting address for the purpose of contacting the State agency in order to request and obtain information or advice;
      4. by-laws, resolutions of the Council of Ministers, regulations, orders, circulars, rules, work pattern, policies or interpretations only insofar as they are made or issued to have the same force as by-laws and intended to be of general application to private individuals concerned;

A State agency shall, for dissemination purposes, compile and make available the said information for sale, disposal or distribution at its office.

B. Make available at least the following official information for public inspection:
      1. a result of consideration or a decision which has a direct effect on a private individual, including a dissenting opinion and an order relating thereto;
      2. a policy or an interpretation which does not fall within the scope of the requirement of publication in the Government Gazette;
      3. a work-plan, project and annual expenditure estimate of the year of its preparation;
      4. a manual or order relating to work procedure of State officials which affects the rights and duties of private individuals;
      5. a concession contract, agreement of a monopolistic nature or joint venture agreement with a private individual for the provision of public services;
      6. a resolution of the Council of Ministers or of such Board, Tribunal, Commission or Committee as established by law or by a resolution of the Council of Ministers; provided that the titles of the technical reports, fact reports or information relied on in such consideration shall also be specified;

C. Provide information according to individual requests:

If any person makes a request for any official information, other than the official information already published in the Government Gazette, or already made available for public inspection, or already made available for public studies, and such a request makes a reasonably apprehensible mention of the intended information, the responsible State agency shall provide it to such a person within a reasonable period of time.

Any person, who considers that a State agency fails to publish the information in the Government Gazette, fails to make the information available for public inspection, fails to provide him with the information, violates or fails to comply with this Act, or delays in performing its duties, or considers that he does not receive convenience without reasonable cause, is entitled to lodge a complaint with the Commission.

Therefore, we can see that most types of the official information are subject to disclosure while only a few are declared as exemptions. The OIA prescribes the types of information that are not subject to disclosure, as follows:

Official information that may jeopardize the Royal Institution shall not be disclosed. A State agency or State official may issue an order prohibiting the disclosure of official information falling under any of the following descriptions, having regard to the performance of duties of the State agency under the law, public interests and the interests of the private individuals concerned:

      - the disclosure thereof will jeopardize the national security, international relations, or national economic or financial security;
      -
the disclosure thereof will result in the decline in the efficiency of law enforcement or failure to achieve its objectives, whether or not it is related to litigation, protection, suppression, verification, inspection, or knowledge of the source of the information;
      - an opinion or advice given within the State agency with regard to the performance of any act, not including a technical report, fact report or information relied on for giving opinion or recommendation internally;
      -the disclosure thereof will endanger the life or safety of any person;
      - a medical report or personal information the disclosure of which will unreasonably encroach upon the right of privacy;
      - an official information protected by law against disclosure or an information given by a person and intended to be kept undisclosed;
      -an order prohibiting the disclosure of official information may be issued subject to any condition whatsoever, but there shall also be stated therein the type of information and the reasons for non-disclosure. It shall be deemed that the issuance of an order disclosing official information is the exclusive discretion of State officials in consecutive levels of command; provided that a person who makes a request for the information may appeal to the Information Disclosure Tribunal (IDT) as provided in this Act.

Implementation of the Official Information Act
Implementation in 1999

1. Complaint cases
      -
There were 113 complaints, 80 of which were solved while the remaining 33 are under processing.
      -
Most of the cases are complaints about the officials who didn't give good services and didn't deliver information to the people who requested.
      - Complaints are four times more than in 1998, with only 32 cases.

2. Appeal cases
       - There were 78 appeal cases. 44 cases have been solved by the IDT. 13 cases are now under consideration and 21 cases are under process by the Office of the OIC. (OOIC)
      - For all 57 cases, 49 cases were taken care of by the IDT for social and national administration affairs and 8 cases by the IDT for economic affairs.
      - 56% of the appeal cases are concerned with disciplinary investigation documents. 23% are information of such current affairs as the investigation result of the corruption in the Ministry of Public Health, the bid for asset sales by the Financial Sector Restructuring Authority, and 21% are information related to concession, contract and meeting report.

Problems in Implementation
After 2 years of the implementation of the OIA, the OIC has concluded major difficulties in government information disclosure practices.

      1. Most people neither understand key elements of the Act nor realize their own right. Most people do not know how to utilize the law in compliance with their demand to have access to the State information. People cannot exercise their right, as they do not know the procedures.
      2.
As for government agencies, the high-ranking officials do not understand the law and do not know how to implement the Act. More than this, as they lack adequate knowledge of the law and the main principles of information disclosure service in order to achieve people's right to know, they thus cannot administer the office in accordance with the Act. Another significant aspect is they have less skill in exercising discretion.
      3. Apart from high-level officials, bureaucrats who service requests for information disclosure also suffer from deficient knowledge about the Act. They are not yet accustomed to the new principles of information disclosure. They also have negative attitudes towards the Act. Some feel that the Act puts more burden on them, and like those at the executive level, they have less experience in implementing the law, in terms of servicing procedures, information disclosure and exercising judgment on the kind of information that may be disclosed.

Strategic Guidelines for 2000
To solve the problem and overcome such difficulties, the OIC has prepared the strategic guidelines for the year 2000 onward as follows:

1. To promote and develop the acknowledgement of the Act's content, its utilization, the mechanism and the procedures to utilize the Act to meet people's right to access information
      - State agencies should provide more training to increase knowledge of the law as well as to change the attitudes about it and enhance their law-enforcement skills. This should be done on the different target groups, ranging from executive officials, legal officials, officials in charge of OIA and top management staff of local administrative bodies. The training should be aimed at encouraging State officials to know the Act well and realize its significance. This will help improve the capacity and efficiency of the agencies and of the nation as a whole.
      - More public relations campaigns will be implemented as a means to educate people about the law and the mechanisms of using the law to access State information. Activities should be concentrated on building the awareness of the public and educating people that the Information Act is important as it ensures their right to know. They thus should be more involved in employing the Act to get access to information, which is crucial in making the government more accountable and transparent.
      - The mass media will be encouraged to play a more active role in the information community as the media will be of great help in promoting people's freedom of information. The media can help enhance knowledge about the law and teach the public how to use it. The media can also act as a representative of the public by using the law and getting access to State information in the name of the people. Media training is thus recommended in the coming year.

2. To develop the administration of State agencies
      - To develop the reform of the documentary management of all government offices to be more efficient, more systematic, eventually leading to nationwide linkage in compliance with the OIA implementation. Each agency might manage its own information by categorizing what information could be released at the level of certain officials in charge and what should be taken into consideration by higher-level officers.
      -
The OOIC will develop the manual or handbook for State officials in order to standardize procedures and mechanisms on the enforcement of the information law.
      
- Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) should be carried out in all State agencies, by both internal auditors and external inspectors, even from academic institutions, university and NGOs. The objective of the M&E is to follow up the understanding and motivation of officials and also the satisfaction of the people in the State information disclosure services. The M&E will help the OIC to improve the administration of the law, to develop strategies and guidelines, and to supervise the implementation of the law to eventually achieve the goal of promoting freedom of information.

3. To improve the Monitoring and Evaluation of the OIA implementation of State agencies
The OIC proposed guidelines to the cabinet in November 1999 and 4 measures were approved to follow up the implementation of the OIA by all government agencies:
      - All State agencies have to report their activities on implementing OIA to the OIC twice a year
      -
The Office of the Permanent Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office will be the main agency in charge of monitoring and evaluation, through the annual operation inspection plan of the Prime Minister Inspector General
      - All ministries and departments must take this evaluation as a significant policy by appointing the inspector general of each minister to be responsible for this mandate.

      - The inspector general of the department of local administration will be responsible for the M&E of local entities.

4. To develop the efficiency and capacity of the OOIC
The OOIC was established to serve as the secretary and assistant to the OIC. The office is small compared to the scope of work in dealing with 8,775 State agencies around the country. To serve the commission and the State agencies, in order to achieve the goal of promoting the freedom of information, the OOIC should be developed to perform as a small but highly efficient office. This year, the OIC has set up the development strategy for the office to be organized with potential to serve at its best capacity in evaluation and monitoring. Concurrently, close coordination with State agency will be more emphasized in order to assist and facilitate proper and efficient implementation of the Act.

Latest Cabinet's Resolution
The government of Thailand takes the issue of freedom of information as a key policy, since it is considered the most essential part of the political reform portfolio of the country. To promote people's right to know is a crucial part of a democratic society and assists in building up civil society.

Such recommendation was proposed by the OIC to the government early this year and the cabinet, on February 1, 2000, approved the proposal and issued the following confirmed guidelines:

      - All State agencies have to speed up the strict enforcement of the OIA.
      -
Concerned agencies should support the budget, staff, staff development, to the OOIC, in order to efficiently achieve the goal of the information law.
      - The representative of ministries to the OIC must work for the commission at least 2 years in order to have the OIC perform continuously.
      - The Prime Minister's Office together with all State agencies should consider the development of the information management and documentary administration to be a systematic one with nationwide network.
      - The promotion of high ranking officials and the recruitment of new staff as legal officers should take the capacity and the performance in the management according to the OIA as a standardized consideration.

Concluding Remarks
The OIA has been a crucial component for democratic development as it encourages people to enjoy more political participation by directly expressing their opinions and proposing their needs or suggestions to the State. This should help make the government more accountable and more transparent. In order to participate well and efficiently, people should have full access to State information and should know what is going on through State policy. People should know all what the government does or will do. The OIA ascertains the government's vision of "what the government does or knows, people have the Right to Know."

However, the OIA is a new law, and the new concept of freedom of information is totally new to both the Thai State officials and to the people. Thai society thus needs some time to learn about and take advantage of the Information Law. State officials have to understand more clearly the procedures of law enforcement so that they know how to provide information services and disclose information disclosure to meet public demand. Meanwhile, people should recognize their own right to know and know how to utilize the Information Act as a means to access State information. Thai society should recognize that information law is an essential aspect of establishing accountable and transparent government and a crucial part of building civil society. <

 


Nakoen Serirak is head of the Research and Development Department of the Office of the Official Information Commission.

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