The Royal Gazette is trying to catalyse support to revive the “Public Access to Information” proposal – aiming to get Government to recommit to the legislation in this year’s throne speech. In 2005, Government published an excellent briefing on the subject – but actual draft legislation has not been created for public input.
To his immense credit, Alex Scott (who originally championed the project) says that he’s willing to table a private bill if the public pushes for it:
“It’s a case of cooperation and communication between the Government and the public it serves. I can’t repeat that too often. That’s why we had an Ombudsman. It’s all part and parcel of putting the rights of the public in the hands of a structure so that, no matter who the government is, the public’s interests and rights are served. We were elected and now re-elected to provide our community with the best possible terms of reference for governance and democracy and I can’t put too much weight on how important PATI is.”
Now’s the time to get the PATI project back on track, particularly when other jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands have leapfrogged us.
This must not be misconstrued as an anti-PLP effort. It is not. The citizens of Bermuda pay for reports and data to be compiled to support decision making and to serve the public interest – that information belongs to us, not the civil service and not the elected officials.
Nor is PATI a corporate effort. In most countries, the primary beneficiary of freedom of information requests are individuals.
Pay Hikes? // Oct 23, 2008 at 9:32 am
[...] Freedom of information act [...]