Right to Information – RTI Bill Adopted

Right to Information Bill – RTI promulgated

After about two decades of waiting, Parliament pbaded the Right to Information Bill on Tuesday.

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah presented third reading motion seconded by National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Tamale Central and member of the hierarchy to the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional, Legal Affairs and parliamentarians, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini.

The law provides for the implementation of the constitutional right to information held by public and private institutions, subject to the necessary derogations compatible with the protection of the 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 not tabled in Parliament until 2010.

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It was brought back to the sixth legislature but could not be adopted until it expired on January 6, 2016.

After months of waiting, the bill was tabled in Parliament in 2018 by Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice Joseph Dindiok.

It was read the first time and the second time. Subsequently, the bill pbaded the stage of considering changes to certain clauses.

The latest amendment to the RTI bill last Friday, which had been proposed by the Okaikoi Central MP (MPP MP) for Okaikoi Central, Mr. Patrick Yaw Boanah, has changed the ministry in charge of the implementation from the bill, emanating from the prosecutor and the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of Information.

Implementation period

It is recalled that the Parliament had previously approved a motion for a resolution that would delay the implementation of the RTI Act until the next financial year in January 2020.
Suhum's New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP, Frederick Opare-Andah, had previously proposed the amendment that the RTI bill would come into force 12 months after the date the law was sanctioned by the President. .

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

But Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu re-examined the proposal that "this law will come into force at the beginning of the next financial year".

The minority in Parliament opposed the proposed transitional provision to delay by one year the implementation of the law on the right to RTI.

Minority deputies said that the media, civil society organizations and many Ghanaians have been waiting for years for the pbadage and implementation of the RTI. It would therefore be wrong to delay implementation once adopted.

They stated that government institutions already had information managers and an information system that allowed them to disclose information to the public.

Right to Information Bill – RTI Roadmap

Last Sunday, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the government is preparing a roadmap for the implementation of the RTI Act.

He added that the implementation of the law would require the establishment of information units in all public offices, the recruitment and training of officers of information for these units, the establishment of the RTI Commission and the development of various administrative protocols before the start of the next financial year. fiscal year.