Infrastructure Watch 2023: Infographics

Abstract

Section 9 of the RTI Act No. 12 of 2016 mandates the Minister responsible for an infrastructure project to must disclose project information. In 2022, Verité Research assessed government compliance with the RTI Act's proactive disclosure provisions for 60 large-scale infrastructure projects valued at Rs. 1.08 trillion, implemented between 2019 and 2021. In 2023, Verité Research assessed government compliance with the RTI Act's proactive disclosure provisions for 60 large-scale infrastructure projects valued at Rs. 2.54 trillion, implemented between 2019 and 2022. Despite the Right to Information (RTI) Act’s proactive disclosure requirement, only 18% and 25% of information required to be disclosed on large-scale infrastructure projects were proactively disclosed online in 2022 and 2023 respectively. The information, when available online, was mostly available in English – even though the RTI Act mandates disclosure in Sinhala and Tamil, with English required only if feasible. In 2022, 18% of the information was available in English, but only 5% in Sinhala and 4% in Tamil. This trend continued in 2023, where 25% was available in English, with only 8% in Sinhala and 8% in Tamil.