Vexed Bermoothes

In the United States, the first executive directives issued by an incoming President are closely watched as indicators of the tone of the new administration.  It is telling that the first orders issued by President Obama yesterday dealt with ethics and transparency in Government.

“Transparency and rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

“Starting today,” Mr. Obama said, “every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known.”

Advocates for openness in government, who had been pressing for the moves, said they were pleased. They said the new president had traded a presumption of secrecy for a presumption of disclosure.

The US Government, it should be noted, already has one of the most developed “freedom of information” regimes in the world.  It appears that President Obama is signalling that he will remain true to his campaign promises to take ethics, transparency, and accountability in the public sector to the next level.  Moreover, as a Senator, Obama has already co-sponsored bills that would vastly improve public insight into the Government contracting process.

“It’s not about advantaging yourself. It’s not about advancing your friends or your corporate clients. It’s not about advancing an ideological agenda or the special interests of any organization.  Public service is, simply and absolutely, about advancing the interests of Americans.”

“The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the American people, then it should not be disclosed. That era is over now,” Obama declared.

Bermudians must take note of our inadequacies in this area:

• No Public Access to Information law combined with a tradition of Government furtiveness
• Poor communication with the public on legislative activity, parliamentary activities, and rulemaking
• Haphazard execution of public consultation
• Overuse of ministerial overrides of established procedure
• Weak oversight of government contracting
• Weak controls on conflicts of interests by politicians and civil service, including register of interests, code of conduct, etc.
• Weak campaign finance obligations
• Weak anti-corruption provisions in legislation