Passage of RTI bill into law; No turning back!

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Parliament will this week pass the Right to Information Bill (RTI) into law.

At least, two government officials, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, have both hinted the passage of the bill on separate occasion.

While Mr Mensah-Bonsu, was quoted as saying the bill would be passed tomorrow, Mr Nkrumah on the other hand, is reported as announcing that the government had commenced the preparatory works ahead of the passage of RTI bill into law this week.

According to the Information Minister, it was necessary to ensure that the needed infrastructure could deliver on the RTI requests that would be filed under the law.

“The bill in its current form requires the establishment of information unit in all public offices, recruitment and training of information officers to man these units, establishment of the 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 RTI requests filed under this new law”, he said.

The comments made by the two government officials showed clear indication that Parliament is poised to pass the RTI bill into law.

The Ghanaian Times is pleased that at long last the law would hopefully be passed after a long delay.

This should also be very pleasant news to all Ghanaians, especially civil society that has championed the passage of the bill for the past 20 years.

As a matter of fact, the RTI bill has been in and out of Parliament for close to two decades and its passage would be a testimony to the perseverance of civil society and those who fought in support of the bill.

The bill in its self is a fulfillment of Article 21(1)(f) of the 1992 Constitution which guarantees the right of all persons to information, subject to such qualifications as are necessary in a democratic society.

In simple terms, the bill when passed into law would provide for access to official information held by public institutions, subject to public interest and freedom of others.

We are certain that many Ghanaians, particularly journalists would eagerly look forward to the passage of the RTI bill which obviously is central to the active participation of all in the governance of the country.

In a democratic society, it takes well-informed people who have access to information to contribute meaningfully to good governance of their country.   

It is, for this reason, that, we continue to advocate for the RTI and are happy that at long last, we are close to enacting a law that would create the conditions for citizens to have access to a lot more information than before.

Ghanaians certainly would be better off than before the passage of the law.

We commend civil society and Parliament for staying the course till now.