Hong Kong officials must do better when handling public requests for information, outgoing ombudsman says

The outgoing ombudsman has taken a parting shot at government departments, saying there is plenty of room for improvement on answering citizens’ requests for information, while calling a legislative proposal to require officials to provide data to the public conservative.

Connie Lau Yin-hing, who retires from her watchdog role at the end of the month, said grievances about officials rejecting requests for information were always the category that “topped the chart” of complaints her office received over the years.

“Government departments can come up with many reasons to refuse to give information,” Lau said in her farewell press conference on Thursday.

“Sometimes they say they simply don’t have the data and won’t mobilise resources to compile it to entertain the request. I feel that if the information is of great public interest, departments should get down to compile the data.”

Another common reason cited by officials to withhold information, Lau said, was a confidentiality clause in a third-party agreement, such as a rental contract or service deal with a contractor.

Lau, who has led the watchdog against maladministration for five years, said such clauses should be removed from government contracts to increase transparency and accountability, except in cases, for example, where a contractor had special technology that it had to keep secret from its competitors.