PRIME Minister Moses Nagamootoo is in the process of advising President David Granger on the status of Commissioner of Information, Charles Ramson SC, who has never submitted a report of his work since getting the job in 2013 and has recently said that he is not required to submit a report to the First Vice-President.“I am in the process of advising the President as regards the status of Mister Ramson,” the Prime Minister said briefly on Monday. Ramson has served as Commissioner of Information since 2013 and has since failed to submit a single report to the Minister of Information since he assumed office under the Donald Ramotar administration and according to him; he is not required to report to the Prime Minister about the work of his office.

He posits that it is the Prime Minister’s responsibility by virtue of the Access to Information Act, who has to submit a report to the National Assembly. Ramson who served as Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs under the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), believes that the Prime Minister is attempting to “spin” the provisions of the Access to Information Act for his own benefit.

Additionally, Ramson was reported as saying that he is not accountable to the Prime Minister as he is not his “boss.” “I don’t have to submit a report to him. He is not my boss. He gotta prepare the report…he admits it in his own thing [the newspaper article] but he is trying to throw the blame on me because he is a spin doctor,” Ramson told Stabroek News in an article dated January 15, 2017 and headlined ‘Is not me falling down on the job, is them’- Ramson accuses PM of ducking duties under Access to Info law. He noted that out of courtesy he can provide the report to the Prime Minister but the Act does not expressly state he must so do.

However, the Prime Minister told Guyana Chronicle that Ramson’s utterances are nonsensical as he (Prime Minister) cannot submit a report to the National Assembly unless Ramson provides him with an outline of the work done at the end of each year, in accordance with the provisions of the law. “I do not accept his explanation…it doesn’t make sense. How can I report on his work, when he hasn’t provided any information?” asked the Prime Minister who made it clear that he does not operate in a vacuum and as such cannot function in void. The Prime Minister said “nihil fit ex nihilo” which means, out of nothing comes nothing.

Meanwhile, Ramson who has been working out of his East Street home, quoted Section 44 of the legislation which says that the Minister shall as soon as practicable but not later than nine months, after the end of each year, lay a report on the operation of this Act in the National Assembly.

Section 44 (2) of the Act stated that “each responsible Minister shall, in relation to the public authorities responsibility for which has been assigned to him, furnish to the Minister such information as he requires for the purpose of the preparation of any report under this section and shall comply with any prescribed requirements concerning the furnishing of that information and the keeping of records for the purposes of this section.”

However, the Commissioner of Information contends that Nagamootoo is also the “responsible minister” referred to in Section 2. The former Attorney General has been receiving a salary of approximately $1.2M monthly since he took office in 2013 but has not submitted a single report on work done over those years.