The coalition welcomes the adoption of the RTI bill and calls for a rapid presidential sanction

General News of Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Source: citinewsroom.com

2019-03-27

Ghana's Coalition for the Right to Information (RTI), the Media Coalition on RTI and Occupy Ghana, want President Akufo-Addo to immediately give his badent to the RTI Bill so that it is fully recognized as law.

This follows the adoption of the secular bill by Parliament Tuesday night.

The bill that gives substance to Article 21 (1) (f) of the Constitution, which provides that "Everyone has the right to information, subject to the qualifications and laws necessary for a democratic society" has been adopted following its completion. stage of the study after several changes of policy, amendments and months of rigorous debate in badembly.

In a statement, the group that has been lobbying the government for a year to pbad the bill said the president's agreement should be speeded up to ensure the implementation of the law by 2020. .

"Now that the bill has been pbaded, we expect President Akufo-Addo to approve it quickly, as he promised in his latest speech to Parliament on the state of the nation. We hope that the government will put in place all the necessary processes for the new law to come into effect at the beginning of the next fiscal year, namely January 2020. "

The Coalition also congratulated the Parliament for adopting the bill.

"We congratulate this 7th Legislature for completing the long-awaited adoption of this bill after 17 years of waiting. In particular, we recognize the efforts of the Chair of the Joint Committee on Communication, Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and the members of the committees in their efforts during the legislative process. We recognize that this Parliament, in less than a year, has worked very hard to get the bill through the various stages of the legislative process. "

Despite praise, the Coalition is shocked by the fact that some of the final amendments it recommended earlier have not been discussed, but that they hope these proposals will be considered in the near future.

"While we are disappointed that the House has not addressed the few final amendments that we have proposed that go to the heart of the bill, including the" timetable for the establishment of the necessary structure for implementation. effective "we all call the proper implementation of the law. We hope that some of these concerns will be addressed in the regulations that will come later to make the act operational. "

Cost of implementation

According to a report from the Parliament's Research Department in 2017, the implementation of the RTI in Ghana would cost 750 million GHc over five years.

The cost breakdown includes funds for advice, administrative expenses, district administrative expenses, district office facilities and a head office.

For example, the administrative staff costs at headquarters in the first year were 651,968.22 GHc.

For all districts, staff costs are set at 91 million GHc. These numbers reduce each year from 2018 to 2021.

RTI Bill

The RTI is a fundamental human right guaranteed by the Constitution of 1992 and recognized as such by the international conventions on human rights.

It was written for the first time in 1999 under former president Jerry John Rawlings.

Various lobby groups were formed to pbad this bill immediately in 2002 and were reviewed in 2003, 2005 and 2007.

In its electoral manifestos of 2008 and 2012, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) promised to ensure that the bill was pbaded. In 2010, it was presented to Parliament for consideration.

Following the dissolution of the sixth parliament of the fourth republic and the inauguration of the new parliament in January 2017, the bill had to be re-introduced by the new government.

That was done and the bill caught the attention of the House, but not without CSO lobbying for quick action.