according to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

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…to push for FOI, Broadcast legislation before Parliament dissolvesThe life of the ninth Parliament of Guyana is set to come to an end in August when the constitutional deadline expires. The Alliance For Change now says that its Freedom of Information Bill and Broadcast Legislation will be put back on the agenda to ensure that there is at least a debate.This was confirmed by both party leaders Raphael Trotman in whose name the Freedom of Information Bill is in and Khemraj Ramjattan who tabled the Broadcast Legislation as well as Sheila Holder, who has a motion on the order paper as it relates to campaign financing.All of those pieces of legislation have been put on hold given that there was a sense that there was no consensus on the Bills and the politicians did not want the pieces of legislation to fail.The politicians said that they did not want the legislation to die with the dissolving of Parliament come August.Trotman told media operatives, also, that the party is currently exploring options to reprimand Prime Minister Samuel Hinds who had written to the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Opposition Leader Robert Corbin and Trotman informing them that the Government’s Access to Information Bill would have been tabled in the House by the end of January this year.According to Hinds in that letter, in keeping with the recent pronouncements by Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo, he was informing the House that the government intends to bring the Access to Information Bill in JanuaryTrotman said that what the Prime Minister did was tantamount to perjury and to date he has not even explained or apologised for the error.He stressed that the Letter stressed unequivocally that the Bill will be tabled by the end of January.Trotman explained that perjury has a legal connotation and in seeking to clarify what he was saying given that “in this silly season” the words uttered would be used against him.The AFC leader said that a person holding the Office of the Prime Minister of Guyana carries a certain level of propriety and as such utterances have to be taken seriously, and more so when they are placed in writing.Trotman explained that such a letter from the Prime Minister, who is the leader of the government in Parliament to the Speaker of the House and the Opposition Leader has “weight attached to it.”He said that while this letter is not to be used as evidence in a court of law it should be considered as if it was.“The Prime Minister’s written statement of fact” that (the PPP) will be bringing the Bill touches on certain privileges afforded to a Parliamentarian, Trotman said.He said that the party is currently investigating if whether such a very public and definitive statement by the Prime Minister and subsequently displays no intention of honouring the commitment to see if Hinds didn’t breach any parliamentary provisions or privileges.He said that given the recent pronouncements by the Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon, on the Bill, he believes that they are moving to dissolve Parliament before August without the administration tabling the pieces of legislations.Trotman said that on this issue they will use posterity to the judge them on this issue and they will on the first available occasion will have the Bill debated, “if they will vote against it let them vote against but I will not allow it to die a natural death.”He said that Dr Luncheon who is not a parliamentarian seems to have very intimate knowledge of the agenda.Ramjattan also used the opportunity to announce that he would be taking the same course of action as his colleague and will have the Broadcast Bill debated in the National Assembly as soon as possible.He stressed too that the promise has been made but to date the pieces of legislation are yet to see the light of day pointing out all of the deadlines that have been missed thus far.Ramjattan added that he did not want to say that the administration is lying but rather it has not been exact with the truth.The essence of the Freedom of Information Act, according to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), is the empowerment of the populace to request any piece of information (with few exceptions, such as medical records) held by a public authority.President Bharrat Jagdeo, during the Summit of Americas in Trinidad and Tobago April 2009, had announced that within three months the government would table Freedom of Information Legislation.