Gov't planning education programme on FOI bill - Barbados

Gov't planning education programme on FOI bill

Published on: 10/30/08.

by ALBERT BRANDFORD

GOVERNMENT is planning to undertake a "total education programme" on the draft Freedom of Information Bill which is intended to provide a general right of access to information in documents held by public authorities.

This was disclosed last Wednesday night by Senator Orlando Marville, chairman of the newly-appointed Governance Advisory Board, of which a six-member panel is hosting a series of town hall meetings on the draft bill.

"One of the intentions is to do a total education programme when once we have come to a proposal that we can put to the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and Cabinet . . . ," Marville told another poorly attended meeting – this time at Deighton Griffith School, Kingsland, Christ Church.

"The idea of this education programme is not only for Information [Commissioners] but also for the public in general."

One of the functions of an information commissioner, as listed in the draft bill, is to undertake or promote the training of officials of ministries and prescribed authorities and other persons on the right to information and the effective implementation of the legislation.

Marville's comments were made in response to a query from a member of the audience, which numbered just over threescore, in relation to national security concerns over the release of certain documents.

 
 

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