Designated Officer's (DO) Duty for providing Information.

According to the RTI Act, every authority is legally bound to appoint a Designated Officer for each of the information providing units at central, divisional, district and Upazila at the lowest level in every government and non-government organization who would provide the sought information to the applicants following the regulations and exceptions of the law in exchange of the determined fee. 

The Designated Officer (DO) shall render reasonable assistance to the persons seeking information. If a person is unable to make a request in writing, he may seek the help of the DO to write his application.

Where a decision is taken to give access to a sensorial disabled person to any document, the Designated Officer, shall provide such assistance to enable access to information, including providing such assistance to the person as may be appropriate for the inspection.

1. The designated officer shall, on receipt of a request, provide the information to the applicant within 20 (twenty) working days from the date of receiving the request.

2. if more than one unit or authority are involved with the information sought for, such information may be provided within 30 (thirty) working days.

3. if the designated officer, due to any reason, fails to provide the information sought for, he shall inform the applicant the reason thereof in writing within 10 (ten) working days.

4. if the requested information is relating to the life and death, arrest and release from jail of any person, the Officer-in-charge shall provide preliminary information thereof within 24 (twenty-four) hours.

5. where the Officer-in-charge fails to provide information within the timeframe, it shall be presumed that the request for information has been rejected.

6. when any information sought for is available with the Officer-in-charge, he shall determine a reasonable price of that information and shall request the applicant to pay the price within 5 (five) working days.

7. where an Officer-in-charge thinks that the request made for information is appropriate, and such information has been supplied by a third party or a third party‟s interest is involved in it and the third party has considered it as secret information, the Officer-in-charge shall cause a notice to be served upon the third party within 5 (five) working days for written or oral opinion, and if the third party gives any opinion in response to such notice, the Officer-in-charge shall take into consideration such opinion and make a decision in respect of providing information to the applicant.

8. no request for information may be totally rejected on the ground that it is associated with information that is not mandatory for publication, and the portion of the requested information which is not mandatory for publication and is reasonably separable from the portion shall be provided to the applicant.

9. where access to the record or a part thereof is required to be provided to a perceptual handicapped, the Officer-in-charge shall provide assistance to him to enable him to access such information and such assistance shall deem to include

any assistance which is required for such inspection.

10. If the Designated Officer fails to provide information within 20 (twenty) or 30 (Thirty) working days or 24 hours from receiving the request, the applicant can forward the appeal to the Appellate Authority, and failing to obtain information from there would allow the person to file a complaint to the Information Commission. 

However, it is important for every organization to preserve all necessary information in order to provide them to the applicants when sought and to publish and resent their activities pro-actively to keep people informed and updated.