INFORMATION MINISTER Burchell Whiteman yesterday announced January 5 as the implementation date of the Access to Information Act and named the members of the tribunal who will hear appeals related to the Act.
The members of the tribunal include: Mrs. Dorothy Pine-McLarty, executive member of the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC); David Coore, former Minister of Finance in the People's National Party (PNP) government; Dr. Oswald Harding, former Opposition Senator; John Maxwell, journalist and lecturer at the Univer-sity of the West Indies; and the Rev. Phillip Robinson, President of the Jamaica Council of Churches.
The Access to Information Act, which was delayed from the scheduled October 1 implementation date, will afford Jamaicans the opportunity to access documents from about 200 agencies and ministries, including some from Cabinet which were previously classified.
Seven of those ministries and agencies have signalled their readiness to begin dispensation in the first phase. They are: the Office of the Prime Minister, the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Finance and Planning, the Ministry of Local Government, Community Development and Sport, the Planning Institute of Jamaica, the National Works Agency and the Jamaica Information Service.
The remaining ministries and agencies will be ready in phases two, three and four for which implementation is expected to take place in May 2004, August 2004 and October 2004.
