RTI Bill to Pass Next Tuesday – Kyei Mensah Bonsu

General News of Friday, March 22, 2019

Source: citinewsroom.com

2019-03-22

Parliament will vote on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, next week, except for the slightest last-minute problem, legislating.

This new insurance was given by the majority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu.

According to him, the minister who sponsored the bill indicated his intention to go to second reading.

Many hope that this new phase of the review will incorporate new proposals from civil society organizations.

Answering a question about the bill in Parliament, the majority leader insisted on his last promise to pbad the bill.

"The Minister [sponsoring the Bill] I had indicated that he was going to pbad it [RTI] during the second review stage and once you have done that, third reading will take place next week. So, if that is possible, we will certainly take the second consideration today on the RTI bill. [Friday] and close the chapter on the reflection phase and pave the way for third reading next Tuesday, "he added.

His promise comes one day after Parliament has indicated that it was not responsible for the delay in the pbadage of the bill.

Ahmed Ibrahim, chief bad of the minority minority, said that the House had done its best to pbad the bill, which did not escape its last reading in Parliament.

He noted, however, that civil society organizations had requested changes to the bill before it was pbaded, which would result in further delay.

The RTI coalition then responded, stating that the proposed amendments to the RTI bill are not causing the delay.

According to Coalition member Kojo Asante, the problems they raised in the bill, which is only a step away from the adoption path, are not new and can be solved in the past. a meeting in minutes.

"There is a problem with Article 13 in which we made a small proposal to make sure it's self-explanatory. I think it will only take a few minutes to come to an agreement, because these proposals were put forward several months ago, so I do not think anyone is necessarily delaying anything that should worry us all. "

The RTI bill has been in Parliament for nearly two decades, but it has still not been pbaded despite calls from the media and civil society groups.

The adoption of the bill has been delayed lately due to conflicts during the period of operationalization.

The Chamber and human rights defenders do not know whether to make it operational within 12 months or as soon as it is adopted.

Coalition calls for new amendments to RTI bill

Three advocacy groups, committed to ensuring that the Right to Information Bill (RTI) was pbaded, had already called for further amendments to the bill to align with the constitution. of 1992.

Ghana, the Media Coalition on RTI and OccupyGhana explained that the coalition's technical committee had reviewed the amendments made to date by Parliament and recommended to Parliament two main issues that merited further consideration.

Regarding the amendments to clause 13, a joint lobbying statement noted that Clause 13 exempts information revealing an opinion, advice, recommendation, consultation or deliberation given to a public institution because it could undermine the deliberative processes of this institution.

Although the coalition recognized the need to facilitate the effective functioning of government and the state, the coalition felt that any limitation of the constitutional right to information should be narrowly defined.

Unfortunately, the current draft Article 13 could easily be misinterpreted to dilute seriously, if not totally, the right to information.