BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - WITH the opposition St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) complaining about not having equal access to state-owned ZIZ Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), the Attorney General has offered an explanation as to why access has not yet been granted.
Asked recently about the government’s position on “freeing up” the entity to the opposition as promised, Attorney General the Hon. Vincent Byron Jr. pointed out that it is still the government’s wish to do so. However, it is currently in the process of re-staffing the entity’s Board.
This comes as a number of persons on the Board of Directors of the national broadcasting agency have resigned, including its Chairman, Douglas Wattley.
“We had appointed a board two years ago. We have had some resignations; we have had one or maybe two people who would have migrated and so the board is in the process of being reset and we need to appoint some people in it to function in that sense.”
Deputy Chairman for the SKNLP Dr. Terrance Drew, in an invited comment, told SKNVibes that the opening-up of ZBC was part of the government’s good governance agenda “that they say that they would have been putting in place - that they are just not putting anything in place”.
“This is part of the objectives all the time. I think this is just an excuse not to follow through with the campaign promise, just as you cannot get an Integrity in Public Life Bill, you cannot get a Freedom of Information Bill and you cannot get a Public Accounts Committee,” the medical doctor added.
The often outspoken Labour Party member, noted that it is no surprise to him or the party that they are taking some time to implement that “good governance strategy”, adding that “it is disappointing of course because they made these promises, and it is not surprising because none of the other promises have been fulfilled”.
Contrary to Dr. Drew’s statement of unfulfilled promises, the Government of National Unity had recently announced that it had fulfilled some 51 promises outlined in their manifesto for the 2015 General Elections.
And regarding the Integrity in Public Life legislation which was passed by the previous administration, Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris said there is much work that has to be done before this piece of legislation can be operationalized.
In terms of policy, Attorney General Byron said that government would want to be able to have the Board members appointed so that such decisions of accessibility would be made accordingly.
He noted that would be “the first priority to ensure that the board is properly constituted and that the company being ZIZ, tries to rebuild itself and function properly”.
“The government has been very open, very transparent and very accountable. And, we would want at some point to address that question. ZIZ is not a government department, it is a public company and so whereas [if] we can influence we would do so. We have not at this point set very clear policy situations on that.”
Drew noted that there is nothing that members of the opposition can do but just wait on the government to make a decision on them having access to the ZBC.
