GOVERNMENT is currently reviewing the contract of Commissioner of Information (COI), Charles Ramson (Snr.) SC, Cabinet Secretary and Minister of State, Joseph Harmon announced on Friday.Harmon told the media that Ramson’s contract is being reviewed, in light of his failure to report on his work to the Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, who has responsibility for his entity. “My understanding from correspondence I have seen is that there has been a serious lack of reporting by the COI on his activities and so the government is at this point reviewing the contract of the COI,” said Harmon.

The Minister of State noted that the COI holds a constitutional office and is required upon request to provide members of the public access to information they would not normally have. In December, the Prime Minister was called upon to provide a breakdown of a multi-million dollar allocation to his office, where he explained to the Committee of Supply that the salaries, gratuity and vacation allowance for the COI amount to $36M.

Prime Minister Nagamootoo also disclosed that Ramson is paid a salary of $1.7M monthly, but has failed to report on his work over the years. “I have written him, he has given no report of his work over the years, and I understand that he has no staff and no office,” the Prime Minister said. In January, the Prime Minister said he is in the process of advising President David Granger on the status of Ramson, who has not submitted a report since he took office in 2013.

But Ramson has maintained that he has done nothing wrong and he is not required by law to account to the Prime Minister as he is not his boss. He posits that it is the Prime Minister’s responsibility, by virtue of the Access to Information Act, 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.

“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 that he must so do. The Prime Minister has rejected Ramson’s explanation, noting the Latin maxim “nihil fit ex nihilo” which means, out of nothing comes nothing.