Former Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Justice Charles Ramson was sworn in July 15 as Commissioner of Information by President Donald Ramotar.
The Commissioner of Information post was created by the Access to Information Act of 2011, passed in September 2011.
The appointment of the commissioner is another step toward implementation of the law, although the report by the Guyana Government Information Agency does not indicate if the law is functioning. The text made available from a nongovernmental source to FreedomInfo.org says that the law “shall come into force on the date the Minister may, by order, appoint” an information commisioner. The law was signed by the president in 2011.
Ramson’s appointment was announced in mid-May. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
The commissioner is charged with quite a variety of start-up duties, including publishing a statement about the particulars of the organization, the categories of documents maintained, the materials prepared for inspection, and how to make requests.
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