Georgetown : The Access to Information Bill tabled in June by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds was passed in the National Assembly last evening.
The Bill, which was sent to a parliamentary special select committee for further analysis, seeks to set out a practical regime of right to information for persons to secure access to information under the control of public authorities in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government and public authorities and for the appointment of the Commissioner of Information.
In his presentation, the Prime Minister said that information is also accessible to interested members of the public, as pertinent information is available on the websites of various agencies, while what is not present on the websites could be made available on request. These include information for tenders, and weekly press briefings by the Head of the Presidential Secretariat among others.
PPP/C Member of Parliament, Gail Teixeira, who also spoke on the Bill, said that it adds another layer of the governance architecture for Guyana in terms of human rights and democratic institutions and is for the benefit of all citizens.
She made reference to a similar Bill which was dated 2006 but wasn’t published until November 2010 was tabled by Raphael Trotman from the Alliance for Change (AFC), and said that it is a duplicate of Trinidad and Tobago’s Freedom of Information Act.
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