Government is wrong to withhold basic information on its rent free lease agreements, according to good governance advocates.Last month, the Estates Ministry declined to identify the 19 charities it said had rent free 21 years less one day leases of taxpayer owned property on the grounds that the agreements were “private contracts” and any information about them could only be released to the public with the consent of the leaseholders.The refusal would fly in the face of Government’s own Public Access to Information laws, were it in force today, according to Centre for Justice.The non-profit’s director, Venous Memari, said Government would have to provide the information unless it was subject to exemptions under the PATI law.Exemptions listed covers personal information, commercial information such as trade secrets which would adversely impact business interests or the outcome of negotiations if disclosed, and third party and confidential information.Ms Memari also noted that the Act provided that “a record shall be disclosed if disclosure is in the public interest”.“It seems to us that the existence of long-term leases, any beneficiary thereof, and any nominal fee does not fall into any of any of the exemptions,” she said.“In the 31st Aug story, the reason proffered for refusing to disclose the information was that ‘the agreements are private contracts.’“In the absence of any further clarification, it is difficult to ascertain what commercial interest would be directly engaged.”And, since the agreements are all concluded, she added, “there is no pending negotiation to be prejudiced”.Government has said that Public Access to Information Act which was passed by legislators two years ago, will become operational this year.The freedom of information law gives Bermuda residents the right to ask for information held by public bodies.It applies to all public authorities, except those exempted, including government departments, quangos, statutory boards and committees and the Corporation of Hamilton and St George’s.Former Bermuda resident, Kevin Comeau also weighed in on the discussion when The Royal Gazette reported the Government’s intransigence last month.“As a lawyer, I can tell you that I know of no legal basis for the proposition that Government can’t disclose this information to the public.“As far as I am aware, the opposite is true. All parties contracting with Government should realise that information contained in a Government lease is potentially subject to public disclosure because the Government is a public entity,” said Mr Comeau in an e-mail.“So, unless the contract specifically states that the contents may not be disclosed to the public (which should only be applicable in the case of national security or other such exceptional cases) Government is not only free to unilaterally disclose all information contained in such a lease, but good governance principles would dictate that they have a duty to disclose such information to the public so that members of the public are better able to determine whether Government officials were performing their duties in accordance with their fiduciary obligation to act in the best interests of the country.“In other words, it appears that someone is misleading the public in a very fundamental way that is not only misstating the law but also violating fundamental principles of good governance.”Premier Paula Cox has stressed that her administration is committed to transparency and good governance. We asked her for her views on the Estates Ministry’s refusal to disclose the identity of the charities with rent free leases.No response was received by press time last night.