The Government has been told to further a search for documents related to the National Anti-Money Laundering Committee after a Pati appeal.The move came after The Royal Gazette asked for records of the group’s meetings after Jamahl Simmons, the tourism minister at the time, said the Bermuda Gaming Commission had not taken part in the committee’s work as requested.Mr Simmons told the House of Assembly in November 2017 that the Gaming Commission’s attitude towards the Government could be seen in “the recent non-participation in the NAMLC’s national risk analysis, failure to provide the requested presentation for the related workshops and failure to provide the analysis and conclusions of the working group that it was chairing”.The Government released a single, redacted attendance sheet for a meeting held after the Pati request was made in response to the original request.The ministry claimed that the Gaming Commission was not required to attend NAMLC meetings before 2017, so information from before that period would be “misleading”.However, Gitanjali Gutierrez, the Information Commissioner, ruled that was not an excuse to limit the search.Ms Gutierrez said: “The ministry justified its response on the basis of the ministry’s understanding of the applicant’s purpose for making the Pati request, ie the 2017 National Risk Assessment.“The applicant, however, expressly states that they wanted records going back to NAMLC’s inception, if possible, and if this was not possible, then going back to the date the Gaming Commission was established.“Despite the applicant’s reference to specific dates, the ministry used 2017 and the date the Gaming Commission became a statutory member of NAMLC as the relevant date.”She added that the ministry had not shown that there were no other records that would fall under the Pati request.Ms Gutierrez said: “Although the ministry indicated in its internal review decision that it did not have earlier attendance records because of staffing changes and two office relocations, the ministry also stated that it did not attempt to actually locate the records prior to 2017 as a result of its analysis of the request.”The Government had also denied requests for “completed assignment sheets” by agencies related to the NAMLC and associated requests for the information by the Government on the basis that such records did not exist.But Ms Gutierrez said the ministry had improperly limited its search to documents related to the National Risk Assessment.She said the applicant had framed the questions around Mr Simmons’s comments in the House of Assembly as the NAMLC had not released much of its internal workings.Ms Gutierrez said: “The Gaming Commission’s involvement in anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing initiatives led by NAMLC was not limited to the national risk assessment, but also to the Gaming Commission’s responsibilities for all AML/CTF matters.“The applicant was seeking records related to the Gaming Commission’s participation in NAMLC generally. “The ministry was not justified in narrowing the scope of the request based on its assumption about the purpose of the request.”She ordered that the ministry should explain what involvement the Gaming Commission had with the NAMLC and give the applicant a reasonable opportunity to specify the records asked for.