Transparent fig leaf

This newspaper understands that governments cannot undertake their negotiations in the open, with every minute detail subject to public referenda.

However, policy should be transparent and it is the people's right to know of the initiatives being undertaken in their name by those they elect to govern. If, for strategic economic reasons, a government decides to build up arrears and then to cover those arrears by the issuance of bonds, the people have a right to know.

Mr Audley Shaw, the finance minister, can only agree.

That is why we are surprised that the finance ministry would refuse to tell the public the level of arrears in the refund of withholding tax and the category of persons owed. What is despicable is that officials would attempt to hide behind a law whose intent was not to obfuscate public policy.

What they don't know is that the fig leaf is transparent.

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