And you also heard from Swaso about whether he believed that Jerry Enriquez's freedom of information request ultimately led to his non-renewal. As we told you, Swaso urged the AG to honor the request and release the figures for the payments made to Marine Parade Chambers and Courtenay and Coye Law Firms. Government challenged that in the Court of Appeal and now Swaso is out of the office.
But he always believed in the value of the freedom of information act in requiring transparency and accountability from the government -which are core principles in democratic governance.
In his report, he stated that his office, quote, "has encountered frequent resistance and systemic delays in the performance of its duties under the Act. These challenges are often not driven by deliberate obstruction but rather by institutional ignorance, lack of training, and inadequate internal mechanisms for compliance." End quote.
He told us more about this yesterday.
Gilbert Swaso, Ombudsman
"The Freedom of Information Act, I am of the view that Belizeans are becoming very aware of their role in ensuring transparency and accountability within government. I think that is a good thing for the democratic process. However, it appears then that there may be some challenge as it relates to those information are requested and when those information are not provided or denied or are not provided timely, that is when the general population needs to come to the office of the ombudsman because the ombudsman is the authority who ensures the checks and balances based on chapter 13 of the freedom of information act so for me, as a ombudsman, it is my responsibility to ensure that the independence of the office remains as it should be and that the population ensures or it appears that we are doing the best with regards to fairness, accountability and the rule of law. The office has to be seem to be doing what it is there to do for the general population and democracy within this country."
