Ramson Sn to account for tenure at Information Office

The Office of the Commissioner of Information, headed by retired Justice Charles Ramson Sr, will come under scrutiny by the Coalition Government over its operations.

This is according to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo on Friday at a news conference hosted by the Alliance For Change (AFC). Nagamootoo explained to reporters that the Commissioner is bounded by the laws to uphold certain responsibilities but there is yet to be any evidence of such.

“I’m not aware that this office has done anything really so being pleased is very subjective. There is a law and the Commissioner of Information is bound by that law to carry out certain functions including receiving complaints and facilitating

inquiries into these complaints,” he stated.

To this end, the Prime Minister said he will be writing to the Commissioner of Information to enquire whether since his appointment three years ago, he had submitted any reports to the National Assembly for review.

“I am not aware that any report had been submitted since the appointment of the commissioner, I believe, in 2013… So I would expect upon receipt of my letter, which hasn’t gone out as yet…, the commissioner would be given a time frame within which certain information would have to be available to the Prime Minister,” Nagamootoo pointed out.

When told that the Justice Ramson would have previously explained that he had nothing to report to the House since no one has been asking him for information, the Prime Minister posited that the Commissioner, nevertheless, had a duty to file a report to the House.

“Well, there is a statutory requirement for a report to be lodged in the National Assembly and we would only know what are the difficulties being confronted by the Commissioner, if the Commissioner were to submit those difficulties in writing and have them subjected to scrutiny by the National Assembly,” the Prime Minister asserted.

Furthermore, Nagamootoo added that based on Justice Ramson’s response, Government will consider what steps needs to be taken in order to improve transparency and accountability of the Office of the Commissioner of Information, in terms of discharging responsibilities.

Justice Ramson, who currently operates out of one of his privately-owned houses located on East Street, Georgetown, was sworn in as Guyana’s first Commissioner of Information in July, 2013.

The office held by the former Attorney General is responsible for making available information requested by any member of the public in relation to public institutions such as government owned company, agency or statutory bodies.

The appointment of a Commissioner of Information is catered for under the Access to Information Act of 2011. The Act was passed in September of 2011 in after in-depth examination at the level of the special select committee of the National Assembly.

In accordance with Article 146 of the Constitution and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the act seeks to set out a practical regime of right to information for persons to secure access to information under the control of public authorities in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of the government and public authorities.

A section of the legislation that was made an act enables members of the public to correct inaccurate personal information and protection of the media, with regard to source confidentiality issues.