Access to Information Act 2011

Dear Editor,

On October 22, 2025, a request was made to Justice Charles R. Ramson, SC., OR Commissioner of Information for ten (10) documents. This request, hand delivered to the Office of the Commissioner of Information at 340 East Street; Georgetown was made under Section 12(1) and section 16 of Access to Information Act 2011.

The documents requested included:

1. Copy of the Environmental Permit for the 300 MW Gas to Energy Power Plant
2. Request for Gas to Energy Proposals (RFPs) for design, finance and operations of project
3. Copy of the Environmental Permit for the NGL Gas to Energy Plant
4. Updated Environmental and Social Baseline Study as required in Environmental Permit No. 2021528-NGPLE – Gas to Energy Project
5. Terms of Reference missing from Environmental Permit No. 2021528-NGPLE -Gas to Energy Project
6. Feasibility Study for Associated Gas – (as required in 2016 PSA Section 12)
7. Copies of Environmental Permits for:

• Schlumberger Guyana Inc.
• Tiger Rentals Guyana Inc.
• Sustainable Environmental Solutions Inc. Guyana
• Professional Waste Solutions Inc. (PWSI)

8. Copies of EPA-EMD2012HWRRF1R1- Recording and Reporting Form of Hazardous Wastes (For New and Existing Operations) – Oil & Gas Companies for Years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025
9. Certification of all marine vessels transporting hazardous wastes from offshore platforms to onshore hazardous waste management facilities by Guyana’s Environmental Protection agency in keeping with environmental permits for Liza 1, 2, Payara, Yellowtail, oil and gas platforms for the years 2020 to 2025
10. Certification of all road transportation vehicles transporting chemicals and hazardous materials to onshore facilities and bonds as certified by Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals Control Board Guidelines for Pesticide and Toxic Chemicals Transport Permits for the years 2020 to 2025.

The letter requested that documents be provided electronically and if any request was refused, to provide the legal basis for the refusal and details of the right to appeal. The letter thanked the Commissioner of Information for his cooperation and looked forward to a response at the Commissioner’s earliest convenience.

On October 24, a hand delivered response was received from Justice Ramson S.C.O.R which acknowledged our application and assumed our eligibility to do so “pursuant to S12 of the Access to Information Act 2011.” However, Justice Ramson S.C.O.R response indicated that the Office of the Commissioner of Information is not a “Public Authority” as defined by S 2, contrary to what “some uninformed members purportedly representatives of unelected “Civil Society” believe, and that if such documents become available consideration will be duly given and appropriate action taken before any further correspondence is sent. Justice Ramson S.C.O.R also recommended that in order to facilitate any further applications, we could access and consider his lecture sponsored by the Guyana Bar Association in 2017, his book, Metrics of the Bar and Practices and the Bar Review.

Requests for many of these documents were previously made to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with no success and after repeated attempts to engage with EPA Units and officers on availability of these documents. A letter on this lack of access to information by the EPA was also written and publicized by news media previously.

Based on the response from the Commissioner of Information, this request for information is once again at a dead end and calls into question the right of citizens of Guyana to access information even though since 2011 the Access to Information Act is in effect and should be facilitating citizens’ right to information.

We hereby share the following relevant sections of the Access to Information Act 2011 for guidance:

• S 7(a) (i) – Powers of the Commissioner of Information: the “Commissioner of Information has the power to require a public authority to take any steps as may be necessary to secure compliance with the provisions of this Act including (i) by providing access to information, if so requested in a particular form.”
• Section 12(1) and (2) – Right to Access to Information says, “Notwithstanding any law to the contrary and subject to the provisions of this information act, it shall be the right of every citizen or person domiciled in Guyana to obtain access to an official document.” (2) “The Minister may, by order, extend the right to be given to official documents under subsection (1) to include persons not referred to in that subsection and may set such conditions as the Minister deems appropriate.”
• In Section 16 (1), and (2) on Procedure to Make a Request the Act states, “A person who wished to obtain access to an official document shall make request in the form (a) and (b).” These procedures were followed by persons making this request and included, “sufficient detail to enable the Commissioner of Information or an officer of the public authority who is familiar with the relevant documents, to identify the document with reasonable effort. “

We took special note of the Guyana Standard and Guyana Times article of August 19, 2025, which reported that according to the PPP/C’s manifesto the next PPP/C government will fully enforce the Access to Information Act. Unfortunately, this was not our experience and we call on the relevant authorities including the Office of the Commissioner of Information, the relevant PPP/C Government and all other agencies to ensure that this request for information as set out in the Access to Information Act is followed and made available and we as well as others who may have been denied access to documents and information receive these as are our rights under Guyana’s Access to Information Act 2011.