Top offices in Sri Lanka including those of the President, Prime Minister, and Speaker are under fire for allegedly ignoring citizens’ Right to Information (RTI) requests. With no responses to key inquiries and a stalled Information Commission, media groups and legal experts are calling this a serious violation of democratic accountability.
Despite Sri Lanka’s constitutional guarantee of access to public information, the offices of the President, Prime Minister, and Speaker are reportedly failing to comply with Right to Information (RTI) requests even when formally submitted by citizens and journalists under the provisions of the Information Act.
According to a weekend report by the Lankadeepa newspaper, none of these three top state institutions have responded to RTI requests submitted by a senior writer in July. These included official queries directed to the Presidential Secretariat, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Speaker’s Office, and the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
Among the unanswered requests were critical pieces of information: details on the President’s personal staff, advisors, the Clean Sri Lanka initiative, and the report on Container 329. Likewise, the Prime Minister’s Office has failed to disclose data on staff appointments and the ongoing government vehicle auction process.
The Speaker’s Office refused to provide any information on his personal staff, citing parliamentary privilege. However, legal precedent set by the Court of Appeal (CA/RTI/0004/2021) has previously ruled that parliamentarians are not a special category exempt from public scrutiny. They are elected representatives and remain accountable to the citizens who voted them in.
Meanwhile, the Right to Information Commission itself is barely operational. It has reportedly slowed down or postponed case decisions due to the lack of a full membership and absence of a Chairperson. Although the Constitutional Council had approved one nomination to the Commission over two weeks ago, the President has yet to confirm the appointment.
Legal experts argue that the Commission already includes three qualified lawyers, any of whom the President could immediately appoint as Chair. However, no action has been taken, and concerns continue to grow over the Commission’s ability to function.
On July 29, the Young Journalists’ Association and the Deyata Saviya Organization filed a fundamental rights petition in the Supreme Court, stating that the failure to appoint a Chair has led to the violation of public rights. Separately, journalist R. B. J. Suranga and a group of others lodged a formal complaint with the Human Rights Commission last week, citing repeated delays and derailed RTI processes due to leadership paralysis. That complaint is registered as HRC/HO/2228/25.
In light of the escalating crisis, several media organizations have written to the President, urging him to expedite the appointment of the missing commissioner and ensure the Right to Information is respected as a fundamental democratic principle.
The controversy casts serious doubt on the transparency commitments of Sri Lanka’s highest offices and has sparked renewed calls from civil society for immediate reform and accountability.
