Gov't to withdraw controversial Cabinet secrecy resolution

The Government has bowed to public pressure and will withdraw the resolution tabled in the Houses of Parliament to increase from 20 to 70 years, the period for which Cabinet documents may be barred from public access.

There has been immense public outrage since the matter was reported on Tuesday.

Speaking on Nationwide Radio a short while ago, Leader of Government Business in the Senate Kamina Johnson Smith said at Friday's sitting of the Senate, the resolution will be withdrawn and at next week's meeting of the House of Representatives.

"Public voice overtakes the parliamentary debate," said Johnson Smith, who is also the minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade.

Johnson Smith did not indicate why the Government made the proposal in the first place.

However, she said the government heard the outcry.

"This was not a matter intended to roll back all the progress we have made," she said.

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

This morning, the Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate Donna Scott-Mottley said the proposal undermined 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.

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