Government backbencher Walter Lister has said he is certain the parliamentary committee which scrutinises public spending will soon stop meeting in secret.

The veteran PLP MP, who sits on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), told The Royal Gazette: "We are concerned about it and we, the Government of the day, have always felt that opening it up to the public is always a healthy thing.

"It's only human rights, only natural, to give people an opportunity to see what goes on in these committees. This would be a broadening of democracy here."

Meanwhile, Premier Ewart Brown has commented on a directive sent out by new American President Barack Obama on his first full day in office telling US government departments and agencies that, when in doubt, "openness prevails".

The memo says the country's Freedom of Information Act — passed more than 40 years ago — "encourages accountability and transparency" and "is the most prominent national commitment to ensuring an open government".

Dr. Brown has promised Bermuda its own freedom of information (FOI) law but has not said when legislation will be tabled in Parliament.

The Premier said yesterday: "President Obama's commitment to FOI is laudable. I don't think you will find anyone in our Government who thinks supporting the principles of FOI or PATI (public access to information) is a bad thing.

"We have consistently supported the introduction of such a measure in Bermuda. That's why I am confident ours will be the first Government to bring an FOI/PATI bill to the floor of the House of Assembly."

The Royal Gazette's A Right to Know: Giving People Power campaign — launched a year ago — calls for an FOI law to be introduced swiftly in Bermuda and for parliamentary committees, particularly the PAC, to open up. Public accounts committees around the world are viewed as essential for ensuring accountability in government financial operations and most meet in public in democracies.

Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards said recently that other Commonwealth countries were "astonished" to hear that Bermuda's PAC does not at a workshop in Trinidad last month. Mr. Lister, who attended the same event, said: "No one ever said anything about astonishment at Bermuda while I was there."

He said discussion about the importance of open public accounts committees took place on the first day of the workshop, when he spoke about how the UBP never saw the need to open the PAC during their 30 years in power.

"As soon as we came to power we realised it needed to be open," he told this newspaper. "That's the position we held in Opposition and still hold that view in Government."

Asked why it had not been done during the last decade of power, Mr. Lister replied: "Look at the things we have done in the last ten years and there are still things to do. To make a big issue of one item is spinning wheels. It doesn't accomplish very much."

All of Bermuda's parliamentary committees meet behind closed doors but last year the newly created Joint Select Committee on Education was given permission to meet publicly on a trial basis.

In February last year, Parliament's Rules and Privileges committee began a review of the rules governing the legislature, including whether or not committees should open up. It has not yet reached a decision.

Mr. Lister said: "The important thing is that we believe in open committees and we have taken the opportunity to start up a committee to look at the rules in Parliament. They are looking at it so we can make all those policies, so we have open door policies. I suspect this will come about in a very short period of time."

Referring to this newspaper's campaign on behalf of taxpayers, he said: "I think they have a right to know. I share their concern. I'm not opposed to committees being opened up."