Chilean Member Appointed by President to Council for Transparency
Roberto Guerrero V. of TAGLaw's Chilean member firm, Guerrero, Olivos, Novoa y Errázuriz, was recently appointed by the President of the Republic Ms. Michele Bachelet, and ratified by the Chilean Senate, as a member of the Board of the Council for Transparency, a recently created public agency which role is to ensure that public information is made available to the citizens. A new Act for Access to Public Information was enacted in August, 2008 and such law established that, absent an exception for reserve under certain grounds, all information produced by the governement, armed forces and state-owned companies is public and the general public has the right to access such information. The law also created the Council for Transparency, composed of four members appointed by the President and ratified by the Senate.
The Council, particularly the first one, has several challenges, such as, among others: (1) to establish a public agency, to hire its staff and to create its internal regulations and policies; (2) to issue general rules in order to ensure access of governmental information (including such information of the armed forces and of state-owned companies) by the general public; (3) to supervise governmental agencies and the public administration's compliance with their obligation to provide such access; (4) to sanction public officials that do not comply with the law (even imposing fines); (5) to educate the public administration and citizens about this new legal obligations and rights.
Roberto Guerrero V. considers this to be an honour and a great opportunity to contribute from the professional world to the creation of this entity and to effectively promote access to public information, which is a crucial tool when monitoring governmental actions, promotes an effective democracy and enhances the rule of law.
