Retrograde... Opposition demands gov't withdraw Cabinet secrecy order

The Opposition has described as retrograde, the proposal by the Government to increase from 20 to 70 years, the period for which Cabinet documents may be barred from public access.

Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Senator Donna Scott-Mottley is demanding that the Government to immediately withdraw the order and abandon it.

The order, signed by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, was tabled in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

READ: ‘Secret’… Gov’t wants disclosure of Cabinet documents barred for 70 years

Scott-Mottley said the proposal undermines the objectives of the Access to Information Act. 

"The government should be seeking to increase transparency and foster trust between them and the citizens, not hiding its decisions and operations from the people it swears to serve," Scott Mottley said in a statement this morning.

The Access to Information Act was passed in 2002 with the aims of fostering greater accountability between the government and people, improving transparency in government operations, and increasing the public’s influence in national decision making.

Scott Mottley said now is not the time for the Holness-led Administration to be promoting an "assault" on access to information because of the myriad corruption allegations and investigations in several government departments where malpractices have been detected.

“A citizen who is currently thirty years old would be a hundred years old before being privy to the discussions in the Cabinet. This is clearly unacceptable,” Scott-Mottley said.

She said the Access to Information regime is important for the prevention and detection of corruption by making information available to the public and promoting transparency and accountability in our public institutions.

She wants consultations with the relevant stakeholders, including the Parliamentary Opposition to arrive at a solution.

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