"Much noise for nothing": RTI activist rejects Haruna Iddrisu's concerns about "credibility of politics"

General News of Thursday, March 28, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-03-28

A right to information activist (RTI) rejected comments that the credibility of the RTI law would have been tainted because it would be run by the Ministry of Information.

Samuel Obeng, a member of the steering committee of the RTI Media Coalition, described the concern as "a lot of noise for nothing," explaining that there were bigger issues regarding the recently enacted law.

Haruna Iddrisu, leader of the minority, said on Wednesday that the new law was facing a major political credibility problem because of the last-minute decision to appoint the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the minister of the responsible Justice, instead of the Attorney General, Gloria Akuffo.

He added that since the RTI Act had been promulgated to fight against white-collar corruption, the Attorney General was in the best position to enforce the law.

However, speaking on PM Express on Wednesday, Samuel Obeng said that this concern was not even among the issues that civil society organizations considered relevant to the effective implementation of the law.

"I must say that this is not one of the things we even considered a coalition. My personal opinion is that the minority leader's call is better described as a lot of noise for nothing, "he said in the newsreel for Joy News, a MultiTV channel.

"It was explained that the Cabinet had indeed held a meeting on this subject and that the Office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice had been transferred for general policy purposes to the Ministry of Information Ministry and … this has been done when the definition of minister …[to mean] Minister responsible for information …

"In the bill, there are times when the report of the [Right to Information] The Commission must be presented to Parliament … in Parliament, the Information Protection Commissioner can not come to present a report; who comes forward to present him the report? The minister in charge of information, "he explained.

He stated that the designation of a law enforcement minister was reserved for administrative purposes in Parliament, which suggests that another minister might have been entrusted with a supervisory role.

Mr. Obeng stated, in reading the law, that the supervisory role given to the Minister of Information did not give him the mandate to interfere in the work of the RTI Commission.

Endorsing the views expressed by Samuel Obeng, the chairman of Parliament's Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ben Abdallah, also said that the work of the RTI commission will not be influenced by the Shepherd ministry.

He stated that the RTI Commission, in essence, will badume the true supervisory role of the RTI Act as it will be an independent body to defend the right to information of Ghanaians.