Pass RTI Bill to show commitment to corruption fight - Minority

Minority in parliament has chastised President Akufo-Addo for failing to mention anything about the Right to Information Bill during his State of the Nation Address last week Thursday.

The Minority strongly advised government to walk their talk in the fight against corruption by passing the Right to Information Bill into law led by the MP for Ho West, Emmanuel Bedzra, the Minority insisted that government there was the need to pass into law the RTI to give meaning to the fight.

Emmanuel Bedzra argued that even though the Special Prosecutor was good and will contribute to the corruption fight, it was not in itself the ultimate panacea to the canker.

The Ho West MP was convinced allowing people access information at the Municipal, District, Metropolitan, Ministries and other public offices will enormously help in minimizing the canker to the barest minimum.

“If really we want to fight corruption, we need information from the ministry, we need information from departments, we need information from all agencies but where is the Right to Information Act and where is the Bill that we all worked on in the Sixth Parliament to the extent that we have gotten to consideration stage and that Bill has not found space in the President’s State of the Nation Address.

Indeed are we ready to fight corruption? Is it only about the Special Prosecutor or we need information about other Ministries, sectors, and Agencies then we can fight corruption. That was what was missing from the State of the Nation Address” Emmanuel Bedzra emphasized.

The legislator was, however, not enthused that contrary to the president’s unending talk about his zeal to fight corruption, he has done very little in this regard.

He cited Akufo-Addo’s statement before the House last year when he pledged to pass the RTI but a year after nothing has been heard about it.