Freedom of information or access to records?

Dear Doug, colleagues,

I spent part of yesterday reading through the draft Freedom of Information bill (I hope you folk are reading it and will be attending the Town Hall meetings).

My position right now is that rather than follow the FOIA of the U.S and the Freedon of Information and Privacy Act of Canada, which the drafter of this bill seems to have done, as a progressive country we should be crafting a bill with radical changes to include :

Access to :
1. Access to information held by private companies that relates to the interests of consumers.
2. Access to information, via permanent secretaries and directors of state and statutory departments that is relevant to consumers.

Rather than continue the practice of importing foreign practices or turning to them as "best practices" we should look at other developing countries that have told these countries and their international agencies that their approaches are not relevant to the needs of our societies.

This is an opportunty Doug, for your organisation to stand up and shine.

The Freedom of Information Bill should not only relate to records because essentially it is an "Access to Public Records and Documents bill" but to "Information".

Clearly the former administration or their civil service person (s) took the old approach of rather than finding out the "needs" of people, they went to what obtains in foreign countries.

So we now have a document which the typical bureaucratic approach would lean towards tweaking rather than changing radically, which, in my opinion, is what is required. At this year's economics conference at the Central Bank of Barbados the point was authoritatively made that one of the reasons there is limited trading in the stock exchange is the limited information made available to potential investors. It's not just the balance sheet, it is the unknown details which apparently, are not shared with the public.

Hallam Hope
caritel@hallamhope.com
438-3211/424-0894/822-1414