Cabinet has given the final go ahead for the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill and the legislation is expected to be laid in the National Assembly within the next few weeks, Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon said on Friday.
Luncheon also said that it is likely that the legislation will be considered before a special parliamentary committee before being passed and enacted.
Speaking at a press briefing at the Office of the President, Luncheon said that when Cabinet met on Tuesday, it gave the final go ahead for two pieces of “priority legislation.” These were the Access to Information Bill and the Consumer Affairs Bill, Luncheon said.
“This go ahead would see the necessary fine-tuning and the proof reading, which would be immediately followed by its tabling in the National Assembly. The expectation is that this would occur by the end of April 2011 or very soon thereafter,” he said.
Asked which models of legislation had been considered in drafting the current legislation, Luncheon explained that the drafts were completed at the Attorney General’s chambers. According to him, there was “quite a bit of modelling” from comparable and existing legislation.
“I know at the Cabinet level, we paid particular attention to CARICOM models, CARICOM drafts and model legislation [and] CARICOM actual legislation, this is from Belize, Jamaica, and Trinidad and then further afield. I know… the British and the Canadian models were also looked at and we liberally borrowed elements that would be appropriate for the Guyana reality,” he stated.
Asked if the government intended to have the bill considered before a special select committee in the National Assembly, Luncheon said that this is a strong possibility. “Our intention is to enact legislation, access to information legislation and we want to, as usual, produce legislation that is practical, legislation that we all could be proud of,” Luncheon said. “I would want to believe that the contribution of a committee stage in considering this legislation before its enactment would contribute to our objectives. I cannot, at this time, categorically, but I would say I’ll be surprised were access to information not to be examined, not to be further discussed at the level of the committee stage in parliament,” he added.
In the past, the government has repeatedly set deadlines for the tabling of FOI legislation but these have not been met.
The most publicised of these promises was in April 2009, when President Bharrat Jagdeo, while attending the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, promised FOI legislation within two months.
Meanwhile, Luncheon also said that Cabinet also gave the go ahead for the tabling of the Animal Health Bill as well as the Plant Health Bill.
