Livingstone
THE ACCESS to Information Act was implemented in the Ministry of Land and Environment on Friday, May 20, bringing the head offices of all Government ministries into compliance with the legislation since the first phase of implementation in January 2004.
According to Aylair Livingstone, director of the Access to Information Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister, all Government agencies and departments should also be on board by July.
"We have finalised the process of assessing the state of readiness of the agencies and departments," Ms. Livingstone told The Sunday Gleaner.
She also revealed that up to 600 applications have been received since the act was first implemented and that there has been "measurable satisfaction" with the rate of response.
ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
The Access to Information Act 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.
The entities that came on board in the first phase were 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.
Those that complied in the second phase were 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).
In the third phase, five ministries implemented the act. They were the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; the Ministry of Transport and Works; the Ministry of Justice; the Ministry of National Security; and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
Some categories of documents are exempt from disclosure under the act. They are documents pertaining to the national economy (and the disclosure of which would cause harm to the economy); documents related to security, defence, and international relations; those related to the Cabinet; to law enforcement; legal privilege; Government's deliberative processes; business affairs of others (trade secrets, etc.) and the personal privacy of individuals.
Ms. Livingstone acknowledged there was a need to strengthen the public education programme related to the act. Steps, she said, were currently being taken in that respect.
