RTI bill passes into law Tuesday

Parliament is likely to pass the much-anticipated Right to Information (RTI) bill into law Tuesday 26 March, Starr News has gathered.

The bill was relayed before in March last year by the Deputy Attorney General and Minister of Justice Joseph Kpemka Dindiok after the previous parliament, the sixth of the fourth republic failed to pass it into law.

It had been over two decades since it was first drafted under the auspices of the Institute of Economic Affairs, IEA and more than a decade since the Executive arm of government in 2002 drafted the first RTI bill.

“I think we will have it tomorrow,” the Member of Parliament for Tamale Central and member of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee Inusah Fuseini told Starr News.

He based his assertion on the fact that the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu stated last week that the bill will be considered this week and possibly passed into law.

Fuseini told Starr News’ Parliamentary Correspondent Ibrahim Alhassan, the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee had finished amending the bill and that it is ready for its third reading.

“As a member of the constitution and legal affairs committee of parliament, I’ll tell you without any fear of doubt that we are done with the amendments.

“In fact, that’s why the bill has been identified for third reading because we are done with the amendments,” he said.

The much-anticipated bill was to be pass into law on Friday 22 March but was ordered removed from the House’s order paper or programme line on Thursday 21 March by the Speaker of Parliament Prof Mike Oquaye after demands by Civil Society Organisations for their proposals to be incorporated into the bill before it is passed.

“We are duty-bound to listen to other viewpoints on this matter,” the speaker said in announcing the directive.

According to Inusah, however, the bill will pass into law without the CSOs proposals.

Quizzed why? He retorted “…they came after we had finished the amendments and after the chairman had advertised the amendment and so the amendments.”

When he was supervising proceedings in the House last week Thursday, Second Deputy Speaker Alban Bagbin said: “Civil societies should be informed that these things are evolutionary, not revolutionary. They are evolutionary and so some of the proposals could be legislated upon but they could be held up when it comes to issues of implementation.”

In the meantime, the government said on Sunday 24 March that it has commenced preparatory work ahead of the passage of the bill.

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah told Journalists in Accra that the bill in its current form requires the establishment of Information Units in all public offices, recruitment and training of information officers to man these units, the establishment of the RTI commission and the completion of various administrative protocols before the commencement of the next fiscal year.

“These are necessary to ensure that there will indeed be the infrastructure that can deliver on the RTI requests filed under this new law,” he said.

He said the new law will be a major addition to the credential of Ghana as a strong democracy and President Akufo-Addo who for many years has championed the cause of enhancing the frontiers of human rights.

Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh