Panama: Note on the - Transparency and Access - to Public Information Bill

Positively, the preamble to the RTI Bill refers to a number of external benefits of this right, while Article 4(10) provides for the law to be interpreted so as to favour the greatest scope of the right to information. [...] 2 Panama: Note on the Transparency and Access to Public Information Bill A second weakness in terms of scope is that the RTI Bill, like the current RTI law, refers to the right to information but does not explicitly extend this to the right to obtain documents, as well, which is again better practice. [...] In contrast to this, Article 10 of the RTI Bill requires excessive information to be provided, including the name and ID card number of the requester, the personal information of representatives of legal persons making requests, and a telephone number or email address to locate the person. [...] ▪ The Authority should be required to report to the legislature and the legislature, not the government, should approve directly the budget of the Authority. [...] 8 Panama: Note on the Transparency and Access to Public Information Bill Sanctions and Protections, and Promotional Measures Both the 2013 Law and the RTI Bill provide for fines of up to 50% of an official’s monthly salary to be imposed by the Authority for violations of their provisions.