The long wait for Bermuda’s public access to information law continues. The NYT has an interesting article on India’s popular freedom of information access law pointing out that it may not have made a big dent in corruption, but it has given a powerful tool to citizens to resolve their complaints. There is, however, a [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Transparency'
PAC Opens
June 28th, 2010 · No Comments · Accountability, Bermuda Politics, Transparency
It was not long ago that an MP mistakenly referred to the Parliamentary “Public Accounts Committee” (or PAC) as the “Private Affairs Committee”. Times change, and the PAC has unanimously voted to open its meetings to the public. This is a very positive move. The PAC is currently chaired by the UBP’s Bob Richards. Other [...]
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Bermudironic 2
May 7th, 2010 · No Comments · Accountability, Transparency
The Premier made a statement in Parliament this morning about the introduction of the PATI (public access to information) law. UBP MP John Barritt then posed a question about several outstanding Parliamentary Questions that Government has so far chosen to ignore, relating to the controversial expansion of the Stonington/Coco Reef lease as well as the [...]
Parliament Online
April 14th, 2010 · No Comments · Transparency
We have had more promises of online information services for the House of Assembly, including a proper Hansard, schedules, parliamentary questions and sometimes answers, draft bills, etc. The sooner the better. For those interested, here are two successful examples of searchable parliamentary sites from the open source software world. They do much to provide insight [...]
PATI
March 11th, 2010 · No Comments · Accountability, Transparency
Dr. Brown has again promised that PATI (freedom of information) legislation will be tabled before the House of Assembly this year. Let’s hope it incorporates the substantial feedback that was provided by both Bermudians and international experts in public access laws. Meanwhile, the Cayman Islands Information Commissioner has launched a new website on their PATI [...]
Reform the House
January 26th, 2010 · No Comments · Accountability, Transparency
Last week, MP John Barritt wrote in the Royal Gazette about some changes proposed to the “standing Orders” of the House of Assembly that have been proposed by he and Deputy Speaker Dame Jennifer Smith. The MPs have had the draft since the House broke for summer recess last year, and one hopes the House [...]
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Squelching Accountability
December 14th, 2009 · No Comments · Accountability, Bermuda Politics, Transparency
The PLP pays a lot of lip service to transparency and accountability but, based on their actions, one has to question their actual commitment. The PLP leadership refuses to allow the Public Accounts Committtee (PAC) of the House of Assembly to meet in public – an abberation among modern democracies. And, it appears that the [...]
PATI Retroactivity
December 4th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Accountability, Transparency
The Premier has taken an about-face on the issue of PATI retroactivity, commenting: “I wish to advise this honourable House that when I invite Cabinet’s further consideration of the bill it will contain a recommendation that it consider the issue of retroactivity. Personally, I wish it to be clearly understood that I am in favour [...]
Deliberate Distortion of Reality
December 1st, 2009 · Comments Off · Accountability, Transparency
Senator Walton Brown is all over the news and talk radio decrying the public complaints about weaknesses in the draft PATI law as a “deliberate distortion of reality”. He went on to describe how the section to allow the Minister to amend the PATI law by regulation was only intended to simplify updates to the [...]
Deadline for PATI Input
November 30th, 2009 · No Comments · Accountability, Transparency
This afternoon is the deadline for public input to the PATI “public access to information” bill. I encourage you to make a submission, no matter how brief. The PATI bill may be found here: Bermuda PATI Draft law [pdf] Bermuda PATI Consultation Handbook [pdf] Submissions should be directed to The Cabinet Secretary at pati@gov.bm. The [...]