THE SECOND stage of the phased implementation of the Access to Information Act is slated to get under way this month, the Information Ministry disclosed yesterday. Eight new ministries and State agencies will be included under the Act.
"The eight entities are in an advanced state already. They are waiting to get the go ahead from Information Minister Burchell Whiteman," Dianne Young, public education manager in the Access To Information Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), told The Gleaner.
The eight entities are the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology; the Accountant-General's Department; the Ministry of Agriculture; the Bank of Jamaica; the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture; the Ministry of Health; the Ministry of Water and Housing and the Urban Development Corporation (UDC).
Dorrett Campbell, director of communications at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, said yesterday that the Education Ministry is "ready to go".
"Pretty much we have all our systems in place," Ms. Campbell said. She noted that staff members recently participated in sensitisation workshops, making them better prepared to deal with the public and their requests.
The Education Ministry, she added, is now in the process of identifying about 20 information officers for its six regional offices and 13 agencies. The officers will be drawn from persons already on staff.
Natalya Ferguson, a representative from the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology, said her Ministry should be fully prepared by month's end.
"The Ministry is currently recruiting an Access to Information officer," she said.
ACCESS
The Access to Information Act, first implemented on January 5, allows members of the public to access certain documents, including some from Cabinet, which were previously classified. The full implementation of the Act in all Government entities was split into four phases with the final phase expected to kick in by June 2005.
Yesterday Ms. Young told The Gleaner that, up to April, there were 83 requests for official documents and 69 cases satisfied. Adding that these were preliminary figures, she noted that the Ministry of Finance and Planning received about 50 per cent of the requests.
"Shortly we will have the report itself," she said.
The Finance Ministry was one of seven entities brought on-stream during the first phase of implementation of the Access to Information Act. The others were the OPM, the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Local Government, Community Development and Sport, the Planning Institute of Jamaica, the National Works Agency and the Jamaica Information Service.
The other ministries and Government offices have been spread over phases three and four, in which implementation is expected to take place in August 2004 and October 2004, respectively.
