The Information Commissioner’s Office will be operating with a staff shortage during this fiscal year while cost savings are being sought through the use of existing in-house staff over external legal services.

Diallo Rabain, the Minister of the Cabinet Office and Digital Innovation, in the Budget brief for non-ministries in Parliament, also outlined plans for the relocation of the ICO premises in another effort to cut costs.

The ICO, which ensures public access to the records of public authorities, fostering government transparency and accountability under the Public Access to Information Act 2010, received an allocation of $1.28 million, up 7 per cent on the last fiscal year, primarily owing to negotiated salary uplift.

Mr Rabain said the salaries in the office took up $855,000 of the allocation.

While the ICO is meant to have a staff of eight, there are five at present, including the Information Commissioner.

Mr Rabain said: “In October 2025, the ICO senior investigation officer resigned after one year in the role.

“With the resignation, the office now has three established FTEs [full-time equivalents] that are vacant — a senior investigation officer, an investigation officer and an administrative assistant.

“During 2026-27, the ICO plans to recruit an investigation officer and expects to fill the senior investigator officer post through internal promotion. However, two established FTEs will remain unfunded for this year.

“The Information Commissioner maintains that funding for these two vacancies is not a request to expand the office, but an urgent need to return the office to expected staffing levels.

“For an office of this size, these two posts represent a quarter of the ICO’s operational capacity. The remaining officers shall continue to perform with professionalism and commitment.

“The ICO is clear that the office will continue to discharge its mandate to the best of its ability with the resources provided.”

Mr Rabain said the ICO made downward adjustments to its performance measures because of staff shortages.

Gitanjali Gutierrez, the former Information Commissioner who stepped down in February 2025, warned in the office’s 2024 annual report when it was functioning with six staff members that her successor, later named as Jason Outerbridge, would have to downsize because of budget constraints.

The report said the office found itself returning to low staffing levels and a lack of sufficient funding to maintain its infrastructure.

Speaking of a change of office, Mr Rabain said that a “proposed new lease” will help to realise a saving of $22,000.

A capital investment of $36,000 will cover furniture and equipment at “the new office”, he added.

The ICO’s existing office is at The Maxwell Roberts Building on the corner of Church Street and Par-la-Ville Road.

Mr Rabain said there were 30 new applications for external review in 2025. He said the office was “challenged” to meet its targets, adding: “Delays are frequently due to public authority challenges in responding to reviews while managing their core functions.

“As of now, there are 38 open reviews to the investigation process. To address the growing backlog, the ICO is streamlining its internal review processes for greater efficiency while maintaining fairness and decision quality.

“The ICO proactively seeks resolution opportunities between parties to reduce timelines.”

Mr Rabain said that the budget for external reviews came to $20,000.

He said the reviews were becoming “increasingly complex” as the Pati Act regime matures, “resulting in perennial need to seek legal advice or to prepare for potential judicial review actions in courts”.

He added: “During fiscal year 2025-26, the ICO curbed some legal costs by utilising in-house legal opinions drafted by their investigation officer and former senior investigation officer as they are both qualified attorneys.

“Utilising their legal expertise, although not part of their job description, has opened opportunities for future development of both roles but does not completely replace the need for external legal counsel.”

On rental costs, Mr Rabain said: “Cost savings continue to be realised by reducing rental costs by using public facilities like Bermuda College when hosting in-person activities.

“This economical approach retains spending within the public sector”.

Mr Rabain said the ICO’s public awareness unit was “steadily recovering from years of underfunding” and that a “minimal increase” of $3,000 to the $30,000 total would allow the office to maintain existing educational outreach programmes and cover the costs for promotion and events around the International Day for Universal Access to Information in September.