Pressure group urges government to pass Right to Information Law

Accra, April 21, GNA - The Coalition on the Right to Information, a civil society organisation and individuals campaigning for the speedy passage of the Right to Information Law, on Tuesday urged the government to fulfil its promise of passing the Bill when in power. The group commended the President for taking initial steps in holding the final consultation on the Bill with a view to submitting it to Parliament soon.

The group also reminded the President that his promise to pass the Bill was part of his vision to deepen democracy and accountability and the drive to combat corruption in public office. Mr Akoto Ampaw, a member of the Ghana Bar Association, who read a press statement on behalf of the Coalition on Right to Information at a press conference, said Ghanaians had the right to information under Article 21 of the constitution and government was under constitutional obligation to res pect, protect and enforce the peoples' right to information. The passage of a specific legislation on the right to information was therefore a critical and decisive way in which government can fulfil its constitutional obligation, it said. The group said promoting the Whistleblower's Law would expose wrongdoing in public office by permitting public scrutiny through guaranteed information access. It would also assist in creating the institutional framework that would ensure accountability and combat the entrenched culture of secrecy in public office. The group believes that the mechanism of a right to information law will guarantee public access to government information and break the barriers of secrecy at all levels of public offices to ensure free flow and easy access of official information to the public. The group said individuals can have easy access to information when proper records were preserved. The group called for a review the section of the Bill which states that individuals can be given information within 21 days.

The group called for the training of public servants on information management at all levels of government to help improve efficiency in record keeping and information retrieval processes as well as creating effective monitoring units to assess compliance with information access provision by public officials and instituting administrative sanctions for misconduct.

The bill had been at the doorstep of the previous government for seven years and the group said the delay to pass the law was because it would expose the bad side of government.

The group called on government not to exempt any information from the public if the information affected the public.

Speaking at the press conference, Mr Affail Monney, Vice President of Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), told the press that at a meeting with the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu, she expressed the hope that the Bill would be tabled before Cabinet in a matter of weeks. He said with such a law the media's reportage would be credible and improve the professional ethics and social responsibility to verify information.