It has been a year since the Public Access to Information (PATI) Act was passed in the Bermuda Legislature. A year later, the law has not been put on the books and no commencement date has been given. There is no sign of “freedom of information act” preparation in any part of Government. The PLP [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Transparency'
Corruption Allegations
June 14th, 2011 · Comments Off · Bermuda Politics, Reform, Transparency
The Royal Gazette just dropped a bomb regarding corruption allegations made in Bermuda Supreme Court that will surely dominate our headlines for the foreseeable future and certainly complicate Bermuda’s little political world as well as damage our reputation in the greater world. This allegation raises many glaring issues. Among them it highlights that Bermuda needs [...]
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Whither PATI
March 17th, 2011 · Comments Off · Accountability, Transparency
Premier Alex Scott introduced the idea of “public access to information” (PATI) aka “freedom of information” legislation for Bermuda in 2003. After years of inaction, the project staggered back to life in 2009 and a law was passed by the House of Assembly in 2010. However, the nascent law remains on ice and no timetable [...]
OpenCorporates.com
December 29th, 2010 · Comments Off · Transparency
The Bermuda Government has, at least on paper, embraced public access to information. However, in practice those feet will be dragging for years to come. The reality is that Government has great masses of data that are not available to the public, either through reticence or the simple fact that Government does not remember it [...]
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After PATI
June 29th, 2010 · Comments Off · Accountability, Transparency
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 [...]
PAC Opens
June 28th, 2010 · Comments Off · 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 · Comments Off · 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 · Comments Off · 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 · Comments Off · 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 · Comments Off · 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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