A FREEDOM of Information Act has been long in the making, and the end is not yet in sight. Last week, Minister of Information Maxine Henry-Wilson was again encouraging Government agencies to be more open and speedy in their delivery of information.
The Minister admitted that one of the difficulties she faces on a day-to-day basis is "to nudge, urge, coerce government agencies to open up and provide information." Over the last few months, a number of pronouncements by officials of the ruling party and the Government have strongly implied that the Public Service is not very responsive to the policies and programmes of the Government.
Assuming that the political directorate is indeed serious about freeing up the flow of information from Government to public, then one of its great frustrations must be the deeply entrenched culture of secrecy which more effectively blocks the flow of information than any law.
We glibly talk of the information society. Indeed, the ruling PNP, in its manifesto for the last general elections in 1997, made a bold commitment to creating just such a society. But if the agencies of the Government itself are unwilling and unable to quickly provide accurate and timely information on demand, we will not get much beyond talk.
The media has strongly advocated changes in the legislation regulating access to Government information. But as the Minister of Information herself is forced to acknowledge, legislative changes by themselves without changes in the stifling culture of secrecy will not resolve the problem of poor access to information.
A Government which says it is committed to transparency, must not only move to conclude the long overdue Freedom of Information Act, but should provide the resources. the restructuring, and training necessary to reverse the deeply ingrained mind-set of cloistering information.
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