Will FoI be the catalyst for Change in the public sector?

Will FoI be the catalyst for accountability and change in government?

TWO VIEWS

You can take two views of Freedom of Information (FoI)

One might be that it is overly bureaucratic, expensive and ultimately self-defeating in-so-far as the cataloguing of everything from agendas, minutes and report to post-it pads, diaries and doodles will result in either information overload or a reluctance to record anything at all. Both resulting in less useful information, organisational learning and accountability.

The other view is that this is a brilliant tool for the public to examine and challenge not only the outputs of government but also the thinking and process behind them.

THE IMPLICATIONS

The approach, which appears to be “log everything” is arguably over-the-top since for the most part people only need to know the official data: agenda, paper, minutes and decision.

However the direction being advocated means that the public can ask not only for the formal minutes but also the informal notes, emails, diaries, comments of every stakeholder before, during and after every decision. This puts the public in an enormous position of power to scrutinise who made what decision, when, and under whose guidance and at what time. It’s one thing to see the official minutes, it’s another to have legal access to the private notes of everyone involved.

EXAMPLES

You might expect an FoI request to be something boring like how many tourists arrived by into Jersey in July. However an FoI request could be much more exciting and controversial opportunity to challenge actions or in-actions. I am sure we all have a pet peeve, and now you have a legal shovel to go digging!

The FoI will not allow procrastination or prevarications since the recipient only has 20 days to respond. FoI doesn’t apply to companies but it does apply to government’s role in all parts of commerce and the community.

USING FOI TO DRIVE CHANGE

So the question is how will the public use this powerful tool? Inevitably there will be the questions of “how much did that cost?” or “why did XYZ Ltd get that contract and not me?” but the most interesting will be those that call to very transparent account the performance of Ministers and Departments in the execution of their promises and the factors which have influenced them.

USEFUL RESOURCES

http://www.gov.je/SiteCollectionDocuments/Government%20and%20administration/R%20Freedom%20of%20Information%20Implementation%20Plan%20SOCITM%20GC%2027042011.pdf

https://www.jerseylaw.je/Law/display.aspx?url=lawsinforce%2Fhtm%2FLawFiles%2F2011%2FL-17-2011.htm

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-jersey-13240295

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