Skip to main content

No mood for celebration over 'almost criminal' delay in passing RTI law

Legal Practitioner, Samson Lardy Anyenini
After 19 years, Parliament has finally passed the Right to Information bill but a campaigner says there is no mood for celebration.

“It has been very exhausting,” Samson Lardy Anyenini, who is a member of the RTI coalition, summed up in a concerted struggle to push Parliament to act.

The bill is meant to operationalise Article 21 (1) (f) of the Constitution which states that “All persons shall have the right to information subject to such qualifications and laws as are necessary in a democratic society.”

It was first drafted in 1999 under the auspices of the Institute of Economic Affairs. But it would be first introduced on the floor of Parliament on February 5, 2010.

It has taken approximately 6,988 days, the tenure of three Parliaments and three Speakers of the House, a chamber full of MPs who have talked, debated, vowed, referred it, suspended it and finally passed it – late into Monday night.

"This is a landmark achievement,” the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin said after chairing the passage of the law in Parliament.

But all of this has been done under the weight of a clanging media advocacy with an occasional throwing in of harsh language.

A member of the RTI coalition Samson Lardy Anyenini who has been looking forward for the passed looked back on the advocacy and concluded Parliament has put people through “needless suffering” to have this law.

Weighing up the advocacy, the legal practitioner said the passage of the bill is a “sad commentary on our parliament” and “a sad commentary on governance.”

He explained the right to information is already enshrined in the 1992 constitution. “Just confirm it,” he explained the bill was to lay out the practical steps to get information.

Samson Lardy Anyenini said the people on whose behalf the government derives its power have expressed interest in knowing how decisions are taken on their behalf as the RTI law directs.

But leaders in parliament would come out to say, since the financial implications of the bill was not catered for in the 2019 budget, implementation of the law will start in 2020.

A baffled Mr. Anyenini said Parliament has passed dozens of bills without complaining about whether budgetary allocation exists to implement these laws.

There was an argument from Parliament that government would need to recruit information officers to handle request but the legal practitioner wondered why PROs in public institutions cannot simply be required to handle such requests.

“A lot of rubbish has been put on us all the time,” Samson Lardy Anyenini recounted the despair at the several excuses thrown at the bill.

“You simply can’t wrap your mind around it,” he said.

And then there was the antics in parliament.

“Anytime it was raised to be considered in parliament there was an MP who would rise up and say we don’t have a quorum and so they have to stop considering it,” he said and observed the MP would raise no objections to other bills that did not command a quorum.

He observed a certain impression from politicians to take credit for finally passing the law.

“The jury is out there whether this was made out of a certain benevolence or made from pressure from the public.”

The legal practitioner said he was also not happy at the final state of the bill that was passed, noting there are clauses that could still deny information on issues like public contracts.

Read also: LEAKED AUDIO : CONFUSION AT ATWIMA NWABIAGYA NORTH CONSTITUENCY OVER ENDORSEMENT OF BENITO OWUSU BIO

But he was not despair, he said noting there are opportunities within the law to still ensure the public get information they request for.

A person seeking information from a public institution would have to request for it from an Information Officer who has 14 days to confirm or deny the request.

If it is denied, the applicant can appeal to the head of the public institution who has to respond within a specified period of time.

If it is refused an applicant can escalate the request to the Right to Information Commission for a review.

The law is awaiting presidential assent. After that, the government is required to bring a Legislative Instrument to Parliament.

An RTI issue is going back to Parliament again.
Source: Myjoyonline.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Invest your profits back into farming - COCOBOD boss to Cocoa Farmers

Joseph Boahen Aidoo is Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Joseph Boahen Aidoo, has charged cocoa farmers to be business minded in operating their farms and to partake fully in the various programmes introduced by COCOBOD to ensure good farm yields and to increase profits. "Good farming practices, like pruning, the timely application of fertilizers and proper pests control are essential at all times," he said. Joseph Boahen Aidoo stated this while interacting with farmers in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions, on the first day of his week-long tour of cocoa farms across the county. He was accompanied by the Deputy Chief Executive of Operations at COCOBOD, Dr Emmanuel Opoku, as well, as Directors and Research Scientists from COCOBOD. The tour is aimed at assessing the level of farmer participation in the various farm productivity improvement programmes implemented by COCOBOD; it is also...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stop running commentary on our investigations - A-G warns EOCO

Attorney-General, Gloria Akuffo Ms Gloria Afua Akuffo, the Attorney-General has asked the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to open itself to the public but to avoid running commentary on its investigations. According to her speaking in public about their investigations could only frustrates their efforts as well as give out too much information to criminals to change their mode of operations. “Criminals are always waiting to cover their tracks and therefore coming out to speak constantly about a matter, makes it easier for them to cover up and therefore frustrating the outcome of the investigations,” she stressed. She advised that the statutory body should avoid following rumours and suspicions so as not to not embarrass themselves. Ms Akuffo said this at EOCO’s maiden national stakeholders’ forum in Accra aimed at interacting with stakeholders and share information on cases investigated, prosecutions and convictions obtained as well as recoveries and confiscations made. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Allowing Benito to Go Unopposed is Unconstitutional - Group

Benito Owusu Bio A group calling itself Concern Youth of Atwima Nwabiagya North are describing it as unconstitutional, attempts by the constituency executives to allow Member of Parliament for the constituency, Hon Benito Owusu Bio to go unopposed in the party’s approaching parliamentary primaries. According to the group, the constituency executives in a series of meetings with the polling station executives concluded that nobody wi ll be allowed to contest the sitting MP, a decision most of the polling station executives are not happy with. Starting from first week of April, the constituency executives will send an endorsement forms to all the polling station executives to sign as they only need 40% and above the MP. Concern youth of Awima Nwabiagya North believes this is totally against the party’s constitution and must be condemned. The major political parties in Ghana have been democratizing their candidate selection process, allowing candidates to be freely selec...
Post a Comment
Read more