Opposition Senator Calls Out Government for Ignoring Its Own Transparency Laws

By Kisean Joseph

kisean.joseph@antiguaobserver.com

An opposition senator is charging that legislation designed to ensure government accountability and public access to information is being systematically ignored, with citizens who exercise their legal rights reportedly receiving no response from the ministries they approach.

United Progressive Party Senator Jonathan Wehner said the Integrity in Public Life Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and the Finance Administration Act, a trilogy of transparency legislation passed under the previous UPP administration, are routinely disregarded by the current government, rendering them effectively useless.

“A law is only as good as its enforcement,” Wehner said. “If a law is not enforced, it’s useless.”

According to the senator, citizens who have written to government ministries or the Information Commission, exercising their right to access information under the Freedom of Information Act, have received nothing so much as an acknowledgement.

“They don’t even get the courtesy of a response,” Wehner said. “That’s how we operate in Antigua and Barbuda, and you go on a station and say you’re the most transparent government ever in the history of this nation. The action’s not matching the words.”

Wehner also pointed to the Information Commission as a body that has been sidelined through prolonged neglect, saying it had gone without a sitting for years despite its mandate to oversee freedom of information requests and ensure compliance across government agencies.

The senator said the pattern of non-compliance was not limited to information requests, noting that budgetary allocations and expenditures within government ministries had also gone unaccounted for in ways that he argued breached the Finance Administration Act. He called on the government not only to enforce the existing legislative framework but also to properly resource the oversight bodies responsible for holding it accountable.

According to reports, the issue of transparency and legislative compliance has been a recurring concern raised by civil society and opposition figures across multiple parliamentary cycles, with little visible improvement in government responsiveness to formal information requests.

Wehner is calling on the administration to match its public statements on transparency with demonstrable action, warning that the credibility of governance in Antigua and Barbuda depends on it.

“It’s time to match up,” he said.