One of the reasons given for not disclosing specific government credit card expense records from the Ministry of Education was that senior officials felt doing so would not be in the public interest, the Cayman Compass has learned.
The Compass reported Wednesday that records related to at least two former ministry officials, Minister Alden McLaughlin and chief officer Angela Martins, had been released following a private citizen’s Freedom of Information request.
Those records provided no clarity concerning what was purchased with the cards, beyond stating that former Education Minister McLaughlin’s government credit card charges between July 2005 and December 2007 totaled $40,384.27, while his former chief officer Ms. Martins’s card charges totaled $72,082.26 during the same period. Additional charges recorded for Ms. Martins’s card in 2008 totaled $59,324.84 and another $19,858.04 through June 2009.
According to open records request responses, former education ministry chief officer Mary Rodrigues argued against the disclosure of the Royal Bank of Canada credit card statements.
“I consider the government’s duty to protect public funds and to take all actions necessary to protect the security of all financial instruments to be a very important factor against disclosure,” Mrs. Rodrigues wrote.
Mrs. Rodrigues’s response is made in the context of several other government ministries, including Planning, Works, Tourism and District Administration, releasing government credit card statements for ministers and chief officers – typically identifying the cardholder’s name on the records.
A number of reasons why specific credit card charge information – including Royal Bank of Canada credit card statements – could not be released by the education ministry were sent to the open records requester. These included a claimed exemption of information in cases where “disclosure would prejudice the security of the islands” and another exemption where “disclosure … relates to law enforcement – the trial of any person or adjudication of any case.”
The records provided said nothing regarding monthly charges for Mrs. Rodrigues’s card and contained no information about charges on the card held by former education minister Rolston Anglin.
Mrs. Rodrigues deferred questions about the ministry credit card statements to acting ministry chief officer Christian Suckoo.
The public interest is defined in regulations attached to Cayman’s Freedom of Information Law [2007] and includes items that may or tend to:
Promote greater understanding of the processes or decisions of public authorities
Promote accountability of and within government
Promote accountability for public expenditure or the more effective use of public funds
Deter or reveal wrongdoing or maladministration.
“In reviewing the factors in favor of disclosure in the public interest, I am mindful that while some of the factors could be seen as relevant, based on the circumstances of the instant case, these factors do not override the case made for exemption,” Mrs. Rodrigues wrote.
According to the FOI Law, in any case where the public interest and reasons against disclosure appear to be equal, the relevant record should be disclosed in the public interest.
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The fundamental problem here is that it should not be up to Mrs. Rodrigues to make the determination that disclosure of the requested information would not be in the public interest. Someone a little more independent and impartial should be making that decision.