JUSTICE Charles Ramson Snr., the Commissioner of Information (CoI), will be the subject of scrutiny following his failure to submit reports on his work since he took office in 2013.Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo told reporters on Friday that he has written Ramson asking whether he (Ramson) has submitted information necessary for compilation of the report to be tabled before the National Assembly.

“I am not aware that any report had been submitted since the appointment of the Commission in 2013. None has been tabled in the National Assembly,” the Prime Minister said.

Asked if he is pleased with the Commissioner’s performance, Nagamootoo said that being pleased is “very subjective.”

“I am not aware that this office has done any kind of work really… There is a law, and the Commissioner of Information is bound by that law to carry out certain functions, including receiving complaints and facilitating inquiries into those complaints,” the Prime Minister explained.

Additionally, he said, Ramson is required by law to submit to the National Assembly a report highlighting work done by the Commission. Ramson had, in the past, indicated that there were few requests for information.

“There is a statutory requirement for a report to be lodged in the National Assembly, and you’d only know what are the difficulties being confronted by the Commissioner if the Commissioner were to submit those difficulties in writing and have them subjected to scrutiny in the National Assembly,” the Prime Minister stressed.

As Commissioner of Information, Ramson’s post is empowered by the Access to Information Act, which was enacted in 2011. That legislation establishes in Guyana a regime of transparency and accountability wherein residents and domiciled persons can access public information once it does not conflict with the country’s Official Secrets Act.

There has been some concern about Ramson’s decision to move his office from the Ministry of the Presidency to his East Street, Georgetown home, and Prime Minister Nagamootoo has said he is unsure why Ramson relocated; but he told reporters: “I’d have to find out specifically why he would have had to relocate… I think he had problems parking his huge vehicle…there were some concerns about that.”

However, during an interview with the Guyana Chronicle in June, Ramson said there were very few requests for information since he took office, and even fewer after the administration had been changed. He pointed to requests made by the Guyana Bar Association and Transparency Institute of Guyana Incorporated (TIGI).

In the report published on June 6, 2016, Ramson said that following the change of administration in 2015, he informed the new Government of the protocol surrounding his office, noting that specification existed in the Access to Information Act for the Minister responsible for Information — a responsibility which was bestowed on Prime Minister Nagamootoo — to liaise with the Office of the Commissioner of Information. Ramson explained that he began engaging the Prime Minister’s office via writing, but received no response from the Prime Minister, although someone designated as his Chief of Staff responded. He then requested a direct line to the Prime Minister, but it was Minister of State Joseph Harmon who “took over.”

Ramson told Guyana Chronicle that he began communicating with Harmon, and it was during those correspondences that he decided to relocate. He bemoaned the “garrisoned environment” which developed, and noted that “soldiers really took over the place. They implemented new security measures that everybody who was coming into the place, even those who were working in the place, had to be stopped at the gate, and they would perform security searches, even (on) your car.”

Ramson accused the state of abusing his courtesy, while noting that he reminded Harmon of Section 5 (2) and (3)of the Access to Information Act, which not only spell out the roles and responsibilities of his office, but also the accommodations for office staff and budgetary allocations, in order to ensure his function at full capacity.