ACCESS DENIED!

Four years ago, a pro-accountability lobby used one of the country’s main transparency laws to request from all members of parliament (MPs) annual reports showing how they spend the $1.2 billion split between them each year to enhance the lives of their constituents.

The first batch of Access to Information (ATI) requests by Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal (JAMP) was made in May 2018 for Constituency Development Fund (CDF) annual reports spanning a five-year period, beginning with the 2014-2015 financial year.

Each year, MPs are allocated $20 million under the CDF programme to promote human and infrastructure development at the community and constituency levels through sustainable development projects.

Similar ATI requests were again delivered to MPs through the House of Representatives in August 2019 and 2022 to get data from long-serving MPs and those who took office after the 2016 and 2020 parliamentary elections.

But to date, only 10 MPs, or about 16 per cent, of the 63 have provided a response, some without financial statements of their CDF expenditure, according to documents shared with The Sunday Gleaner last week by JAMP.

Jeanette Calder, executive director of JAMP, believes MPs have largely ignored the requests for details of their CDF expenditure because the “call for transparency” did not come from voters or their constituents.

“The motivation to provide it might also be low because it would put constituents in a better position to assess their contribution through the fund and, in some cases, the assessments might not be sufficiently positive to inspire transparency,” Calder charged during an interview on Friday.

But de facto Information Minister Robert Morgan said he has not seen any “ATI request” from JAMP for details of his CDF expenditure.

Morgan, who is also MP for Clarendon North Central, indicated, too, that he could not speak for his colleagues in the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), saying he has not had any discussion with them about the requests by JAMP.

But he said the information is already available to the public.

“If JAMP is interested in getting the information as it relates to how much money was spent in each constituency every year, the CDF committee meets to approve every single project and these are public meetings,” Morgan told The Sunday Gleaner.

Further, he suggested that JAMP’s requests should have been directed to the CDF Programme Management Unit based at the Office of the Prime Minister “where they could get a record of whatever information is there”.

Up to late yesterday, there was no response from People’s National Party (PNP) General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell to questions submitted by The Sunday Gleaner on Friday.

The disclosure by JAMP comes three years after a compliance audit of the CDF found weaknesses in its risk management system; inadequate controls over disbursements; and inadequate monitoring of projects.

It also comes amid raging public debates and protests over the massive 230 per cent wage hike for MPs over a three-year period, starting in 2021, in the absence of clear performance benchmarks.

THOSE WHO RESPONDED

Opposition Leader Mark Golding is one of six PNP MPs who responded to JAMP, the pro-accountability group disclosed.

The others are Julian Robinson, Anthony Hylton, Angela Brown Burke, Phillip Paulwell and Senator Peter Bunting, the former Manchester Central MP.

Cabinet ministers Marlene Malahoo Forte and Floyd Green are among four JLP MPs who provided responses.

Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, junior minister for national security; and Robert Miller, the first-term MP for St Catherine South Eastern, are the others.

Robinson – who has voluntarily published annual constituency reports for 12 years – and Miller were lauded by the pro-accountability group as “model MPs” for the detailed information they provided.

Robinson, a third-term MP, said he is not aware of any formal requirement to report on his CDF spend, but explained that as an elected representative, he felt the need, after his 2011 electoral victory, to give an “account to my constituents” of the funds allocated to him through the CDF.

“For me, first and foremost, it’s accountability because they are public funds, and I believe my constituents need to know how they are used. I also think it’s important to explain to people the process to access the fund,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

For Calder, the failure of more than 80 per cent of parliamentarians to respond to the requests – made under legislation enacted to promote transparency in government – is “a little troubling”.

“Eighty-four per cent non-response from parliamentarians to a citizens’ organisation saying, ‘Can you share with us how you allocated the $20 million of public funds?’ and you can’t get that information in four years. That is something,” the JAMP executive director asserted.

NOT A PERFECT SYSTEM

The Access to Information Act, which was enacted in 2002, gives all citizens the right to access official documents and correspondence held by government entities.

But the effectiveness of the legislation is being blunted because public bodies and officials have routinely refused to turn over official documents on issues of high public interest, journalists and civil society groups have long complained.

The information minister acknowledged that the ATI system is “not perfect” and disclosed plans for a major overhaul of the legislation and its processes.

As an example, Morgan said the Government is now working to develop a website that will serve as a central point to receive ATI requests and track their progress through the different ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

Further, he said a submission has already been made to the Attorney General’s Chambers seeking to restart a joint committee of Parliament that will review the legislation and craft a new law that would be “more fit for purpose”.

“We want to reform the ATI Act, which is long overdue. That is going through the process through the Attorney General’s Department and then it will go to Cabinet,” Morgan disclosed.

SEVERAL IN ABEYANCE

Zahra Burton, founder of Global Reporters for the Caribbean, has been waiting two years short of a month for a response to an ATI request sent to the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica (PBCJ).

PBCJ initially indicated two weeks later that the request would be a “matter for discussion” at the next board of directors meeting scheduled for September 29, 2021, according to correspondence seen by The Sunday Gleaner.

But by December 10 of that same year, PBCJ indicated that it had “sought guidance on the processing of this appeal”.

Human rights lobby Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) says it has been waiting for months for contracts related to states of public emergency (SOEs) imposed across several parishes since 2018.

JFJ says its request for documents detailing the number of people detained under the SOE and the number of detainees charged with crimes has also been in abeyance for months.

Questions submitted to the culture ministry for details of the expenditures associated with the ‘Jamaica 60’ independence celebrations are among several ATI requests from The Sunday Gleaner that have gone unanswered for more than a year.

“It gives the impression that they are complicit in the corruption taking place in the country,” Burton charged, making reference to the delays by public bodies.

But the information minister insisted that 90 per cent of all ATI requests submitted to MDAs are “satisfied” within the initial 30 days allowed by law for responses.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com