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Lifting the veil of silence

Jun 03, 2010 Editorial

In the past few months there have been sporadic calls for a Freedom of Information Act. This is an act that allows the reporter access to information that is not often forthcoming, although it should be in the public domain.
For example, the average reporter has no idea of what his national leaders earn. He also has no idea of certain public expenditures. For the greater part, he will get no answer to his questions on these things. And regardless of where he turns the denial would remain; the people who should provide this answer would simply remain silent or rudely inform him that the issue at hand is of no concern to him or to anyone.
There is nothing stopping a reporter from seeking information on how much money the state pays certain foreign contractors recruited to undertake certain jobs here. The state has an individual whose task is to ensure that Guyana draws down funding when such funding is available.
Sometimes such payments are only made when a certain amount of a project is completed. This individual therefore has the task of ensuring that the programme is proceeding apace, so that by the time the next tranche is available, the money would be released. This man is paid a substantial sum to ensure that Guyana does not lose money.
But let a reporter try to get his information from the government. It is a state secret that is further protected by a measure of embarrassment. The individual is paid more than the President and the Prime Minister combined. However, this information would not be provided to the press.
Newspapers have run afoul of parties concerned when they would ask questions about contracts and the cost of certain constructions. Even attempts to find out whether a defaulting contractor has paid any penalties levied by the state is not information that would be provided.
Of course, reporters all over the world faced this problem until the United States nearly four decades ago, introduced what has become known as the Freedom of Information legislation and which has been assented to by the President. Since then other countries have adopted this legislation, with the countries of the Caribbean being among the more recent.
Last year April, when President Bharrat Jagdeo attended the Fifth Summit of the Americas he was asked a number of questions at his press conference. One of them was about the introduction of Freedom of Information legislation.
President Jagdeo assured the media, both local and foreign, that by the end of the year such a piece of legislation would have been in the statutes. This is not yet the case and there are those who now wonder whether such a piece of legislation would ever form a part of the laws in Guyana.
The opposition Alliance For Change did table such a piece of legislation but it got nowhere because the government, on two occasions, indicated that it was not prepared to debate such a Bill.
The government is now saying that it will introduce a Freedom of Information Act at the same time it will table broadcast legislation.
However, there is no indication when this could be made a reality. The broadcast legislation has been some fifteen years in the making and it seems no nearer to seeing the light of day. There seems to be no agreement between the people who will operate the broadcast houses and the government. The major allegation is that the proposed legislation seems to want to foist the government on the broadcast sector.
The view is that the Freedom of Information Act is more crucial to informing the public than any other piece of legislation. The media can only make informed decisions if they have the facts. The Amaila Falls project is just one case in point. The cost of the project is not clear. There is also the Marriott Hotel project. One party, ever mindful of the need for full disclosure went public with the discussions it had with government. The local reporters had to do with information from outside.

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