Jamaica and the Struggle for Access to Information

In a statement to Parliament, Jamaica’s Information Minister, Burchell Whiteman, admitted that less than 50 government ministries, departments and agencies had met his 5 July 2005 deadline to be sufficiently prepared to come under the remit of the 2002 Access to Information Act.

Whiteman had previously pledged that all of the government’s 264 institutions would meet the deadline but in a 4 July session of Parliament, he noted that fewer than 50 departments were technically ready to implement the law, while also despairing that, in his judgment, some of them may never be prepared. Whiteman’s statement reflected Government fears that preparing departments and agencies for implementation under the Act would swallow up too much of its resources. Three years after being passed, the implementation of the Act is still at a nascent stage.

Initial progress

Despite slow progress, Jamaica has come a long way from the days when access to information was governed solely by the Official Secrets Act (OSA) – a throwback from its days of colonial rule. Under the OSA, civil servants were liable to prosecution for disclosing information to the public and a culture of secrecy became ingrained in the bureaucracy, thereby fuelling public mistrust of the government.

In an apparent attempt to break with the secrecy of the past, the Government passed the Access to Information Act in 2002. After the passage of the Act, the initial pace of implementation, in particular, the establishment of an Access to Information Unit (ATI Unit) in 2003 tasked with implementation, raised hopes that the Act could be used effectively and quickly by the public to hold the Government to account.

In the early months of implementation. the ATI Unit invited key stakeholders such as members of the political opposition, all of the civil service’s permanent secretaries, heads of ministries and agencies, private sector groups and civil society organisations to participate in the implementation process. Non-governmental groups also came together to form the Advisory Committee of Stakeholders, which now plays an active role in monitoring the implementation of the Act and has been supported by the ATI Unit.

Phased implementation

The interaction between the Advisory Committee and the Government played a crucial role in formulating a plan to implement the Act. In consultation with these groups, the ATI Unit designed a phased implementation programme that started in 2004 with seven ministries and agencies coming under its jurisdiction. These included the Office of the Cabinet, the Ministry of Finance and Planning and the Ministry for Local Government, Community Development and Sports.

Nevertheless, even these Departments and agencies have yet to produce an index of documents available for publication under the Act. Such a list is crucial if the public is to know which departments to approach when making specific information requests. Meanwhile, the ATI Unit has also found itself short on skilled staff and resources required for it to carry out the myriad of tasks. It is responsible for training of government archivists in effective records management; the general training of public officials and key participants in the private sector; the monitoring and evaluation of government entities covered by the Act; and the drawing up of enforcement measures through an internal review and appeals process.

Raising Public Awareness

However, the most worrying problem has been the lack of general public education and awareness of the new rights under the Act. Consequently, applications from the general public for information under the Act have been low, although those from lobby groups and the media have been much higher. In particular, although the ATI Unit has conducted some awareness raising activities, it has been unable to formulate a broad-ranging educational campaign that can penetrate the island’s rural areas. The Unit has looked to other government agencies for assistance in this task. It has only recently been able to launch an awareness campaign but the programme’s effectiveness remains in balance.

Civil society groups, such as Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), have taken up the cause and set up information help desks both to educate the public about the usefulness of the Act and to assist anyone wanting to make an application. More specifically, JFJ has been careful to demonstrate to the public how it can meet their everyday concerns, for example granting people the power to check that the quality of a road being built in their community matches that of what was set out in the contract for the project.

Critical stage

Public involvement in the implementation stage is crucial in sustaining pressure on the Government to ensure that it implements the phased implementation plan. To this extent, Jamaica has reached a crucial stage in its implementation of the law. A right to information law is only effective if it is utilised. Its existence on the statute books is only the first step – effective implementation and application is what will bring about a change in governance and accountability in reality. With that in mind, it is imperative to recognise that unless the wider public is educated and made aware of the Act, Jamaica’s efforts to foster transparent governance could be in danger of relapsing. The Act needs to become more than just a paper tiger.