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

Freedom of Information - Town Hall (1)

Hello Folks,
Well the first Town Hall meeting (at Cawmere, oops Combermere), came off on October 15th as scheduled on the Freedom of Information Bill.
It started with 10 members in the audience and another 10, incluidng some party followers, tured up later.
Four people spoke : Besley Maycock, a retired envoy, Carl Moore, a former Nation newspaper editor, Ian Bourne (former CBC anchor) and this blogger.
Well what we have is legislation taken straight from North America, where information means records/documents and really, not information.
Let me explain. Information for me is not only found in some report or document, but in the crania of civil servants. I suspect there is far more there of relevance than in documents.
So rather than access to information, as in access to senior civil servants who have information relevant to the public, what we have is North America-patterned Freedom of Information legislation.
Well, we managed to get the chairman, Mr. Orlando Marville, to state that the inappropriate deadlines were "not cast in stone". In fact there is a deadlne for submission of views etc. that precedes the end of the Town Hall meetings. This does not make any sense.
I raised the question of a possible conflict between the FOIA and existing confidentiality legislation. In other words, if I go to the Fair Trading Commission and they tell me a certain document is confidential, will the FOIA legislation "take precedence" over the legislation governing the Fair Trading Commission, on the grounds that I am entitled to the information.
Or would it be the other way, thereby rendering the FOIA still-born, or useless in this regard.
Should Barbadians not have a bill that is broader in scope and depth than the North American legislation. Should our national strings not say "we want something that os relevant to our needs"?
The message though as we always say on this blog is get the facts, get the information and let's get off our buns and make a contribution.
Hallam Hope
caritel@hallamhope.com/438-3211

Freedom of Information

So we have a chance to help craft the legislation which should help us as Bajan consumers have access to more information from government and statutory corporations.
Starting at 7 p.m every evening Town Hall meetings on the Freedom of Information Bill at Combermere, October 15th (today); Alexandra School, October 22nd, Deighton Griffith School, October 29th and November 5th at Princess Margaret School are scheduled.
Citizens also have an opportunity to read the draft legislation and comment in written form.
Comments and other submissions should be emailed to freedomofinfobill@barbados.gov.bb
It should be noted that the ads. I have seen do not say where written submissions may be sent or that there is a deadline of October 31st, two days before the Deighton Griffith School public meeting and five days after the last Town Hall meeting.
There must be some logic or illogic about setting a deadline for submissions before the Town hall meeting process has been completed. (lol)

Questions?
To what extent will this legislation streamline access to information given that the citizen is expecting the wheels of Government to turn, in the event of an appeal against a government entity that refuses to provide information on request? Some information has a short shelf life depending on the urgency of the need. So approval of information when it is no longer needed does not contribute to improved transparency.

At what level will officers of government and statutory corporations have the authority to provide information in an expeditious manner.

Despite the fact that the Fair Trading Commission does not require a FOIA to provide basic information to the public will the new laws guarantee that this organisation starts to understand its role to be transparent and provide citizens with information they need to make comments of substance based on hard facts. Who will bell the cat for complaints against the FTC, the Ombudsman?

The point posed is that we have a considerable "culture change" challenge when it comes to accessing information in a timely fashion.
Will new rules and regulations change this?

Hallam Hope
caritel@hallamhope.com
(246) 438-3211