Commissioner of Information Charles Ramson has refused to deal with correspondence that does not address him by all his titles, according to Executive Director of the non-governmental organization Justice Institute Guyana, Melinda Janki, who believes that this is an abuse of his office, and she has called for his resignation.
In a statement, Janki said that Ramson is failing to carry out his statutory duties as the Commissioner of Information. “The Access to Information Act 2011 guarantees to the people of Guyana the right to obtain documents which are held by public authorities. On 3rd September I wrote to Mr Ramson following the procedure set out in the Access to Information Act 2011. Mr Ramson has objected to the way the envelope was addressed. This insistence on irrelevant considerations is an abuse of the power given to the Commissio-ner of Information. Such conduct makes it impossible for the citizens of Guyana to have confidence in Mr Ramson’s ability to carry out his duties as Commissioner of Information. He should do the decent thing and resign,” Janki said.
The statement said that other persons have had their letters returned unopened. According to Janki, President of the Guyana Bar Association Ronald Burch-Smith wrote to Ramson but his letter was returned unopened. Burch-Smith added the title “Justice” as well as “SC” “and OR,” she said, while adding that there has been no response. Secretary of the Guyana Bar Association Christopher Ram also applied for information under the Access to Information Act 2011 but the application was returned unopened, the statement said.
Janki disclosed that in a letter dated 15th September, Ramson in response to her application for information stated that: “It is my earnest belief that attention to detail, including the official title of the Officeholder from whom assistance is sought, is a sine qua non for consideration, even if you may view that title is (sic) unmerited or ornamental.”
The statement pointed out that Section 16 of the Access to Information Act 2011 states that a person who wishes to obtain access to a public document must use the form set out in the Schedule. The form is addressed to the Commissioner of Information.
“The Constitution of Guyana guarantees freedom of information to the people of Guyana. That freedom includes the right to information. By refusing to consider the request for documents, Mr Ramson has put his obsession with titles above the constitutional and statutory rights of the citizen to obtain information about the activities of the government. This suggests that Mr Ramson’s behaviour is so irrational that he is unable to carry out adequately his duties as the Commissioner of Information and should resign immediately,” Janki declared.
The statement said that access to information is a fundamental part of the rule of law. “Without access to information, citizens cannot tell whether their elected representatives are acting lawfully or not in the exercise of their public functions or when carrying out their public duties. The President, the Ministers, MPs and other public servants are paid out of the public purse and are accountable for their actions. By refusing to provide information which is authorised by law for disclosure, Mr Ramson is undermining the rule of law. He is also, perhaps unwittingly, undermining the credibility of the government which passed the law,” the statement asserted.
Stabroek News understands that Janki’s request involves documents relating to the legal arrangements between the controversial Chinese logging company Bai Shan Lin and the Government of Guyana.
Ramson had previously denied an information request from the non-governmental organization Transparency Institute Guyana Inc (TIGI), citing budget cuts. Subsequently, last month, the local transparency body said the government may wish to reconsider whether Ramson is the fit and proper person for the position and slammed his response to the information request as “distasteful.”
TIGI had said that it had written to Ramson, a former attorney general, on June 9th requesting a copy of the contract between the government and the Canadian firm which had implemented a custom-built automated financial management system here. This was because TIGI had learnt through the media that two of the modules of the Integrated Financial Management System had not been implemented after many years even though they were perhaps the most important aspects of the government’s financial management system.
