Duties & Obligations of a Public Information Officer

Duties of a Public Information Officer

The word public authority is frequented in numerous publications. Who or what is this public authority? The simplest to way to understand it may be by glancing at the duties and scope of it. The public authority is given the responsibility of documenting and maintaining the basic structure of the organisation which may include details such as organisation design, list of employees, various procedures to be followed for different operations, rules and regulations to be followed, etc. It also enumerates policy formulation and its implement. Files the minutes of the different meetings and discussions of boards, councils, committees. Public authority prepares statements of employee’s and director’s compensation. Gives a detail account of the annual budget allocation along with subsidies and concessions received. All these details are by rule the responsibility of the public authority to consolidate and present in electronic form. The publications are updated on a yearly basis.

Second important office to understand is that of the Public Information Officer ( PIO ). It is the PIO who deals with requests from persons who seek information in the prescribed manner. The PIO shall either respond to the request expeditiously within a maximum of 30 days from the date of payment or reject the request for any of the reasons specified in section 8 and 9. In cases involving the life or liberty of a person, the PIO is deemed to respond within 48 hours of the request. If however the PIO does not respond within the stipulated time the request is considered to be rejected, in case of which the PIO must communicate with the requester the reasons for the same along with details regarding the appellate authority and timeframe within which he should act upon. The PIO provides the information in the format sort. In case the information is beyond his subject matter, the PIO shall transfer the case to the concerned authority within 5 days or may seek assistance of another officer. In matters where only partial access to information requested is granted, the PIO must provide the information only after severance of the record exempted from disclosure and communicate reason for partial access, designation of the granting or prohibiting authority and the revised fee. In cases dealing with information involving third party, the PIO shall intimate the concerned in written form within 5 days from the receipt of the request, at the same time accommodating his representation by 10 days of notice.