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Opposition Secretary General, NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, recalled a time when any information on the budget was a well-kept secret.
A GNA journalist has been arrested and detained for years for disclosing economic information, commented veteran journalist Kweku Baako.
Asiedu Nketia recalled that the RTI Bill had been brought to his attention in 1999 while he was a Member of Parliament. Public advocacy for the law implementing a constitutional right to public information has begun and has developed.
The bill drafted under the auspices of the Institute of Economic Affairs was reviewed in 2003, 2005 and 2007 and presented to Parliament on February 5, 2010.
And that's where he stayed in Parliament – the word. Pbading through the deliberative ranks of Parliament – first reading after which it is referred to a special commission including the report on the bill behind the second reading in Parliament.
It then reaches the stage of consideration where it is set up for a formal motion and a vote.
The RTI Bill arrived at this stage in December 2016, marking the most advanced stage of the process since 2010.
But small political quarrels spoiled the transition as a minority, the new patriotic party, after taking power, threatened to withdraw if the outgoing government of the National Democratic Congress (NDP) pushed its majority in Parliament to make it adopt .
The bill has collapsed at the stage of study.
And he would resume his road to become law under the new government of the nuclear power plant led by Akufo-Addo.
Under the watchful eye of the RTI coalition, a merger of CSOs to advocate for pbadage of the bill, MPs would meet again in Parliament. Sometimes there was a whole media campaign on Parliament.
And some antics also in Parliament as Adansi Asokwa MP, Kobina Tahir Hammond, would disperse the deliberations on the bill by pointing out that Parliament did not have the quorum to debate it. A quorum that would not be reported for any other business of Parliament.
But on March 25, 2019, late Monday night, Parliament pbaded the bill, which the second vice-speaker of Parliament, Alban Kingsford Bagbin, who presided over its pbadage, described as a "historic achievement."
The law is now waiting for President Nana Akufo-Addo to become an act of Parliament.
But that's not all. MEPs have inserted a transitional provision that will make the law operational after 12 months.
"I do not see any reason why, for this particular bill, they have to put this 12-month-old stuff in," he said.
NDC Secretary General Asiedu Nketia said he could not understand the reasoning behind this transitional provision.
This confirmed his suspicions that it is too early to celebrate the adoption of the law, he said.
Explaining the psyche of politicians, he said, no politician would want to be the first to start enforcing the law, which could open the government to public embarrbadment if transparency of the sun was allowed.
The 12 months begin when the president puts the emphasis. The Akufo-Addo government ends its first term after the December 2020 elections.
— myjoyonline
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