Gov’t still committed to making the Freedom of Information Act a reality

The much talked about Freedom of Information legislation is not a pipe dream, but it will take some work to bring it to fruition.

 

Speaking about the proposed legislation, Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Freundel Stuart recently told the media that a draft, which was created prior to 2010 when he left the post of Attorney General, is currently with the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel (CPC). 

 

“A draft Freedom of Information Bill was presented to me by a committee that was set up by my predecessor in office, a governance committee chaired by Mr. Orlando Marville, on which sat Professor Eudine Barriteau and attorney-at-law Monique Taitt and I think Professor Albert Fiadjoe who was at the University of the West Indies had something to do with the committee as well, and I think he had drafted the Freedom of Information Bill which was brought to me as Attorney General and which I spent many long hours with public officers combing through the still hours of the night to get it readied,” he said.

 

However, Prime Minister Stuart explained that while they do have a bill in draft, legislation in this country is drafted by the CPC and as such the bill had to be sent on to that Office for perusal and final preparation.

“Drafting as any good lawyer will tell you, is a highly technical thing and a highly individualised thing as well, drafting styles differ. And what has happened in recent times is that because of cost factors we have not been able to farm out to former employees of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel’s Office who are familiar with the drafting styles appropriate to Barbados… and therefore when outsiders prepare drafts and they are sent to the Chief Parliamentary Counsel’s Office they really do not treat them as drafts at all,” he explained.

 

Stuart acknowledged that trying to tidy up and tweak any draft is sometimes more difficult than trying to start the process from scratch. To that end, he said the bill is still with the CPC’s Office. He told those gathered however, that he will be bringing up the matter with Attorney General, Adriel Brathwaite, as well as that of the draft Defamation Bill, also drafted by Fiadjoe which is yet to see the light of day.

 

“The Government of Barbados has not resiled from its commitment to putting a Freedom of Information Act on the statute books. It has to be a Freedom of Information Act that bears some relation to our realities… We’ve been very anxious to keep current with what is happening in other parts of the world, so some of these things sound very good, Freedom of Information Act and this act and the other act and ratifying this convention and so on. But when you get down to the actual operationalisation of these things, in the context of other noises you are hearing, that you have to reduce the size of the public service, and other noises you’ve been 

hearing about reducing expenditure, where cost factors are involved sometimes in administering these things, we have to pause and prioritise sensibly,” he said.

 

However, Stuart made it clear that he is not at all suggesting that the Freedom of Information Act will not become a reality, but reiterated that any such piece of legislation must be reflective of everyday life in Barbadian public service, their human resource endowment and what will be required to make the operationalisation of Freedom of Information Act effective. 

 

(JRT)