HONDURAS:
The Data You Seek Will
Be Available - in 2018
By Thelma Mejía
TEGUCIGALPA (IPS) - In a
highly controversial
decision, the Honduran
Institute for Access to
Public Information (IAIP)
has decided to keep from
public scrutiny for 10
years key documents from
the Finance Ministry and
the tax collection
authority.
The IAIP determined that
Hondurans will not be
able to access any
public information that
is classified as
confidential because of
a potential "threat" to
the sovereignty,
governability or
security of the state.
Included in this
category are the
national budget,
budgetary payments,
transfers between the
executive, legislative
and judicial branches,
and the results of
probes into fraud, tax
evasion, state rental
contracts and the terms
and fees of
consultancies.
Under the transparency
and access to public
information law, which
has been in force for
nearly two years,
certain government
agencies must get
approval from the IAIP
to classify the public
information they produce
as confidential for 10
years.
The Finance Ministry and
the Revenue Directorate
(DEI) had requested
confidential
classification of 36
items, including
socially useful
statistics that formerly
were public information,
such as the production
of cigarettes, spirits
and beer.
In response, the
non-governmental
National Anti-Corruption
Council (CNA) asked for
the repeal of the
resolution on Monday,
and warned the people of
Honduras that such
actions only confirm the
culture of opacity and
secrecy that has been
traditional in this
country.
The CNA was created by
the transparency and
access to public
information law as its
enforcer, and to
supervise the IAIP's
role in guaranteeing
maximum publicity for
state actions and the
right of access to
public information.
Rolando Sierra, of CNA's
Analysis Unit, told IPS
that classifying for a
decade information that
is of public and social
interest "does not make
sense in a country that
is aiming for
transparency, an
information culture and
accountability."
"These resolutions by
the IAIP not only grant
enormous discretional
powers to the Finance
Ministry and the DEI,
but also leave the door
open to continue
creating a climate of
corruption, and prevent
society from
scrutinising tax
collection by the
government," Sierra
said.
Much of this information
was already in the
public domain, and now,
by withholding it, "the
state is isolating
itself from the public
sphere. What, then, will
we have access to? We
think these resolutions
even violate the
Inter-American
Convention Against
Corruption, which
Honduras has signed," he
said.
Arturo Echenique, one of
the three IAIP
commissioners, said that
"if we act according to
the law, the
constitution and other
special laws on
confidentiality, we will
not be breaking the law,
but of course, our aim
is transparency."
IAIP chief commissioner
Elizabeth Chiuz said,
"We did not make the
law; what we wish to do
is maintain stability
and the rule of law."
According to Mauricio
Díaz, of the
non-governmental Social
Forum on the Foreign
Debt, the IAIP
confidentiality
resolutions "only
confirm our initial
suspicions that the
people in this body are
there to protect
impunity, not to promote
a culture of
transparency."
"We support the efforts
of the CAN, because its
warning and the
arguments in its
document analysing the
impact of these
resolutions are serious
and valid," he told IPS.
"We cannot just set our
sights on laws that
restrict information.
Other ideas and values
must prevail, because
the people have a right
to know about public
affairs," he said.
Five years ago, civil
society organisations
launched a campaign for
a transparency law.
After intense lobbying
of the government and
the public, the law came
into force nearly two
years ago, but certain
limits were introduced,
providing for
information to be
classified as
"restricted" or
"confidential".
A CNA report released a
year ago found that over
70 percent of
interviewees in this
country of seven million
people did not trust
their government
officials. Less than 50
percent had confidence
in the Catholic and
Evangelical churches,
and barely two percent
in the political
parties, according to a
national survey
involving 1,500
interviews in 16 of the
country's 18 provinces.
Transparency
International's
corruption perception
index awards Honduras
only 2.5 points on a
scale of zero to 10,
marking it out as an
extremely corrupt
country.
To date, according to
the IAIP, it has
received 900 requests
for information to be
made public, the
majority of which have
been granted. But nine
strategic areas are
shielded by a
"confidential"
classification,
including security,
electricity, finances,
taxes, banking and
insurance.
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