The RTI bill will be adopted on Tuesday



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Parliament is expected to adopt the Right to Information Bill (RTI) on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, after about two decades of waiting.

This follows the conclusion of the examination of the bill on Friday.

The latest amendment to the RTI bill, which had been proposed by the Okaikoi Central MP (MP for the NPP) for Okaikoi Central, Mr. Patrick Yaw Boamah, replaced the Ministry of Project Implementation by the Attorney General and the Department of Justice. the Ministry of Information.

After the adoption of the amendment, the majority leader, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said the RTI bill would be read for the third time and pbaded next Tuesday.

It is recalled that Parliament had previously approved a motion to defer the implementation of the RTI Act until January, 2020 after it has pbaded.

The MP for Suhum, Mr. Frederick Opare-Ansah, had already 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 discussed the proposal that "this law will come into effect at the beginning of the next fiscal year".

The minority in Parliament opposed the proposed transitional provision to delay the implementation of the Right to Information Bill by one year.

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.

According to them, government institutions already have information managers and information systems to disseminate information to the public.

Context

The purpose of the RTI Bill is to provide for the implementation of the constitutional right to information held by public and certain 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 tabled in Parliament only in 2010. It was brought back to the sixth legislature but n & rsquo; Could be adopted before the expiry of this, on January 6, 2016.

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

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