RTI Bill still not ready to be passed into law – Senior Minister

Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, has disclosed that the Right to Information (RTI) Bill is still not ready to be passed into law.

He explained that cabinet’s subcommittee on governance is yet to give cabinet feedback on the progress made in relation to the passing of the RTI Bill.

He made this disclosure at the launch of the National Anti-Corruption and Transparency week at the La Palm Royal Beach hotel.

“A draft paper was given to cabinet and it was referred to the subcommittee on governance to look at the Right to Information Bill. To the best of my knowledge, we have not gotten feedback from that subcommittee. It means they are working some details on it. This will make sure that when it comes to the whole plenary; when it comes before cabinet, it is ready to go to Parliament,” the Senior Minster said.

Mr. Osafo Maafo promised to quicken the process by ‘pushing’ the committee to ensure that cabinet gets the ‘job done’.

“We are at the committee stage and I think since we have talked about it, I am going to push the committee to make sure that Cabinet gets it done,” he added.

When questioned on the delay in passing the RTI Bill, the Senior Minister argued that the process was more complicated, compared to the appointment of a Special Prosecutor.

“The passing of the RTI is far more complicated than the appointment of the Special Prosecutor Bill,” he stated.