The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Minister Jerome Fitzgerald yesterday presented the public consultation process for the highly-anticipated Freedom of Information Act as “very well received,” as the House of Assembly is expected to begin debate on the revised legislation today.

Mr Fitzgerald’s declaration comes two weeks after the Organisation for Responsible Governance (ORG) said numerous recommendations from civil society on how to improve the Freedom of Information Bill had been disregarded by the Christie administration.

Despite this, Mr Fitzgerald, the minister with responsibility for FOIA, in an interview with members of the press on Tuesday contended that the bill crafted by the Christie administration stands as a critical piece of legislation for the country and for its democracy, adding that he was grateful for all of the recommendations submitted by the committee established to advance it.

The Marathon MP said the public would discover that the government has been able to put forth a piece of legislation that can stand up against any Freedom of Information Act in the world.

“We are very proud of the process,” said Mr Fitzgerald. “… We are proud of the participation, although it wasn’t as widespread as we would like to have seen, but at the end of the day I think the responses received from the various organisations prove to be very helpful at the end of the day.”

He added: “So we will go into debate, we had a briefing with all of the parliamentarians just after Christmas where we had a presentation by the committee to them, now I think they are briefed fully on it and I think we will have a very comprehensive debate of them substantive as everyone is now aware of all of the issues and the implications of the legislation.

“I think it is a milestone for the Bahamas, and something we really should be proud of and embrace,” added Mr Fitzgerald.

Mr Fitzgerald said the committee submitted a total of 13 recommendations to the government. Of the lot, 11 were accepted and adapted to the overall legislation that is expected to be debated in the House of Assembly today.

When asked to expound on the two recommendations rejected by the government, Mr Fitzgerald said he would go into more details when he addresses Parliament today; explaining the reasons why “practically we couldn’t accept them.”

The Marathon MP claimed that the two rejected recommendations did not impact the overall legislation.

Mr Fitzgerald said the now updated bill includes several key components, such as what information is available, how it can be claimed and the time-frame in which that document would become publicly available.

He also indicated that the updated document addresses the required training for public service personnel.

“… At the end of the day (this legislation) is going to have access, a lot easier access particularly for the media,” he said.

“Freedom of Information is really 99 per cent used by the media, everyone wants it, but the media is really the ones who utilise it in order to inform the public on issues which they deem relevant or important.”

“But I think at the end of the day, it speaks a lot to democracy, accountability, transparency of government and I think and I have said from day one, it is something that I support as minister; but I want to do it properly and I want to do it right. And the government has supported it and so you are now seeing the manifestation of that,” he added.

ORG initially argued that opinions, advice or recommendations for Cabinet or a committee should be fully disclosed. The group also recommended that not all records relating to government processes should be exempt from FOIA requests.

Additionally, ORG recommended that when it comes to rights of access to certain information, in the “sunset clause,” 30 years should be reduced to 15 years.

The government released a revamped draft version of the FOI legislation in 2015.