Almost halfway into the legislative year, the House of Representatives is yet to appoint members to a Joint Select Committee of Parliament to review the operations of the Access to Information Act (ATI).

The Gleaner has learnt that while the Senate has appointed its members, the House of Representatives has not done so. A spokesperson from the office of the Clerk to the Houses of Parliament told The Gleaner that a motion was moved to carry over activities of the committee to the present legislative year, but that the committee would still have to be reconstituted.

The spokesperson was unable to say why the committee was not yet set up, despite other committees being established. She, however, noted that the committee could be set up at any time.

Ground covered

The previous committee, which was chaired by former Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Senator Burchell Whiteman, had covered substantial ground in reviewing the operations of the act.

The committee had taken submissions from several organisations, including lobby group Jamaicans For Justice, the Bank of Jamaica, the Carter Center and the ATI Stakeholder Advisory Committee, the Jamaica Environ-ment Trust, the Independent Jamaica Council For Human Rights and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.

The ATI Act was implemented on January 5, 2004.