Former Attorney General, retired Appeal Court Judge Charles Ramson, Snr. has been rehired as Commissioner of Information. This was revealed by installed Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira recently in the Committee of Supply during the consideration of a $40 million budgetary allocation for the Office of Commissioner of Information.
APNU+AFC member of Parliament Tabitha Sarabo-Halley pressed the Minister for details as to what the $40 million for the Office of the Commissioner of Information is to be spent on. “Mr. Chair, I am inquiring whether the $40 million was in fact for the Office or for the Commissioner and if there is no other staff that would be assisting the Commissioner in his duties as Commissioner of Information,” MP Sarabo-Halley asked.
It was then revealed by Teixeira that the $40 million is allocated as follows: $1.5 million per month for the Commissioner with gratuity and vacation allowance which totals $23.8 million per annum, with the balance going towards the office for supplies and other materials.” The amount would represent some 60% of the Budget for that office.
Ramson, Snr., who is the father of the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson, Jnr., was fired back in 2017 by the APNU+AFC government for allegedly, “doing nothing”. Former Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo told the Committee of Supply back in November 2019, that Ramson was dismissed for rendering his office dysfunctional since he (Ramson) failed to submit an account of what he did since assuming the post in 2013.
Nagamootoo had also expressed his frustration with the performance of the senior Ramson at a media Conference in 2017 also. “I’m not aware that this office has done anything really, so ‘being pleased’ is very subjective. There is a law and the Commissioner of Information is bound by that law to carry out certain functions including receiving complaints and facilitating inquiries into these complaints,” the former Prime Minister had told a news conference.
It was reported that Ramson’s office was based at one of his privately-owned houses on East Street, Georgetown. Ramson who was sworn in as Guyana’s first Commissioner of Information by former President Bharrat Jagdeo is allegedly still working from home.
