SASCHA WILSON
If the United National Congress campaign team did use personal information from public agencies to influence potential voters for the 2015 general election, they did not break the law under the Data Protection Act. This is because Section 37 of the Data Protection Act of 2011 which speaks to that issue was not proclaimed by then president George Maxwell Richards. This was confirmed on the Parliament website and by Southern Assembly of Lawyers president Ramesh Deena.
Section 37 states: "Personal information under the custody of control of a public body shall not, without the consent of the individual to whom it relates, be used by the authority except for the purpose for which the information was obtained or compiled by the public body, or for a use consistent with that purpose."
Guardian carried a story on Saturday based on a copy of minutes, dated June 2014, of a meeting convened by UNC Campaign Team and National Executive Coordination, where "tapping into state agencies to build a voter file using existing data capture initiatives," was one of the items discussed.
According to the document which identifies members of the campaign were tasked with the responsibility of sourcing information from bodies such as TSTT, T&TEC, WASA, TTPOST and Gate. However, UNC's secretary general Dave Tancoo, one of the people listed on the document, said the minutes were fake and no such meeting took place.
When contacted to comment on that story, UNC's chairman David Lee neither confirmed nor denied that the meeting took place. "I was not around at that time," said Lee. However, he said Section 37 of the Date Protection Act was has never been proclaimed. "
Meanwhile, Deena said "When I looked at the President George Maxwell Richards at the time in January 2012 only proclaimed certain sections, the rest were unproclaimed and never made law."
Asked if the UNC broke the law if they did in fact source people's confidential information, he said "What would have existed partly under the Freedom of Information, other than that there is no other law except the Constitution which guarantees persons rights, but there is nothing specific under the Constitution as to that, as to how the Data Protection Bill is. So technically, in a sense, they did nothing wrong per say."
Attempts to contact UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar were unsuccessful.
BOXThe Proclamation:
WHEREAS it is provided by section 1(2) of the Data Protection Act, 2011 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) that the act shall come into operation on such day as is fixed by the President by Proclamation:
And whereas it is expedient that Part I and sections 7 to 18, 22, 23, 25(1), 26 and 28 of Part II of the act come into operation: Now, therefore, I, GEORGE MAXWELL RICHARDS, President as aforesaid, do hereby fix the 6th day of January, 2012 as the date on which Part I and sections 7 to 18, 22, 23, 25(1), 26 and 28 of Part II of the Act shall come into operation. Given under my Hand and the Seal of
the President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, at the Office of the President, St Ann’s, this 5th day of January, 2012.
