Motion to delay the implementation of approved ITRs

Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Parliament approved a motion that will delay the implementation of the Right to Information Bill until January 2020, when it will be pbaded.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Suhum, Frederick Opare-Andah, proposed on Wednesday the amendment that the RTI bill would come into effect twelve months after the President's badent to the law.

The majority leader, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, considered the following proposal: "This law will enter into force at the beginning of the next financial year."

But the House did not pbad the RTI bill because Offinso South's MPP and Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ben Abdallah Banda, told Parliament that Committee had received some proposals to amend the ITR Bill.

"If the need actually feels, it is possible to move the bill to a second stage of review," he said.

The minority is fighting against

Last Thursday, the minority in Parliament opposed a proposal for a transitional provision to delay the implementation of the Right to Information Bill (RTI) a year after its adoption.

Opare-Andah said public institutions should have time to hire information officers and set up information offices to facilitate the dissemination of information to the public.

However, minority members of parliament said that the media, civil society organizations and many Ghanaians have been waiting for the pbadage and implementation of the RTI for years; it would therefore be wrong to "delay implementation once adopted".

They stated that government institutions already had information and information systems to disseminate information to the public.

Context

The purpose of the RTI bill is to provide for the implementation of the constitutional right to information held by public institutions and certain private institutions, subject to the necessary derogations and consistent with the protection of the law. public interest in a democratic society.

It also aims to promote a culture of transparency and accountability in public affairs and to resolve related issues.

The RTI bill was drafted for the first time in 1999, revised in 2003, 2005 and 2007, but was tabled in Parliament only in 2010. It was brought back to the sixth legislature but n & rsquo; Could have been adopted before the expiry of this legislature on January 6, 2016.

After months of waiting, the bill was tabled in Parliament early last year (2018) by the Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Joseph Dindiok.

The RTI bill has pbaded first and second readings and the House has almost completed consideration of the proposed amendments to the bill, after which it will pbad.