Today SHG has issued an Update on the “Code of Practice for
Public Access to SHG Information”. Read the update at http://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/public-access-to-shg-information-update-on-code-of-practice/
Only 26 requests since June 2017? And, as we remember it, it was also 26 when
the last "update" was issued, some months ago.
People do not bother using this policy because it is
discretionary - you ask and SHG decides what it will release.
The whole point of Freedom of Information is
to expose things SHG would prefer to keep hidden – errors, mismanagement and, perhaps,
corruption. A discretionary policy
cannot achieve this.
St Helena needs Statutory Freedom of Information, where SHG
is REQUIRED to publish information, even when it would prefer to hush something
up. Inward Investors will run a mile
from an administration that keeps its secrets hidden.
