Two prominent groups making submissions to the Joint Select Committee of Parliament reviewing the Access to Information Act (ATIA) yesterday objected to the Bank of Jamaica's (BOJ's) request to be exempted from the provisions of the Act.

The ATI Advisory Stakeholders Committee submitted that sensitive information is already adequately protected by the Act and the exemptions contained therein.

The stakeholders urged the committee to "resist all attempts by some public authorities to designate themselves as more special than other public authorities".

The stakeholders committee includes the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), the Media Association of Jamaica, the Caribbean Examinations Council, the Bar Association of Jamaica, the Jamaica Civil Service Association, Jamaicans For Justice, the Joint Committee for Tertiary Education, the Press Association of Jamaica, Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication, the Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs, and the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights.

Human rights advocacy group, Jamaicans For Justice, also made their own submission to the committee which pointed out that there is the allowance for the BOJ to appeal to the ATI Appeal Tribunal concerning requests for information.

"The BOJ, like all other government bodies, must adapt to the new paradigms of transparency and accountability by the ATI Act," JFJ submitted. "The research we have done of other Commonwealth countries indicates that all contemplate the central bank coming under the freedom of information legislation."

Deputy Governor of the BOJ, Rudolph Muir, presented the bank's submission to the committee yesterday, which pointed to its role as the "hub and repository for the country's key economic activities" and proposed that the bank be protected from the provisions of the Act and that the law be changed to allow for the BOJ to provide information only with the permission of the governor or finance minister.

The BOJ has also recommended that the minutes of its board meetings be exempted from public disclosure for 20 years, or for any period specified by the finance minister and subject to "affirmative resolution".

"The granting of exempt status is crucial to ensure that the very sensitive matters discussed at Central Bank board meetings are not divulged to the public at large and that directors will not be restrained in their participation at these meetings because of fear of disclosure of their contribution to debates or their utterances of positions taken on any issue," Muir told the committee.

The Joint Select Committee, chaired by minister of information Senator Burchell Whiteman, is reviewing of the Act, which came into effect on a phased basis on January 5, 2004 with a mandatory requirement for a biennial parliamentary review.

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