RTI bill may be passed on Friday – Mensah-Bonsu

The much anticipated Right to Information Bill will finally be passed into law on Friday, March 22.

This was disclosed by the Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu Wednesday.

“Mr Speaker, as I said, the matter of policy has been sorted out. What is left now is that new proposals have come from civil society for us to factor them into the bill. Other than that, nothing prevents us from bringing matters to a closure.

“That’s why I’m saying it is even possible to bring matters to a closure this week, Friday,” Mr Mensah-Bonsu stated.

His comments come on the back of warnings by the second deputy speaker Alban Bagbin that Parliament will be compelled to pass the bill into law if the issues of policies are not resolved.

“The house is ready and willing to pass it. But the issues of policy have cropped in and two ministries are holding us up. But the public is blaming us for not passing the bill. More importantly, the Right to Information Bill, we give notice to the relevant ministries that we can no longer wait on them and we will be compelled to complete it without whatever they are doing.

“There’s no perfect law anywhere in the world and what we are doing is one of the best in the world so far and so there’s nothing with us passing it. And if the need be, there’s nothing wrong with us coming back to make those necessary amendments to the bill,” he stated.

The RTI

The RTI bill was laid before Parliament by the Deputy Attorney General Joseph Kpemka Dindiok in March this year.

It has been 22 years since the first RTI bill was drafted under the auspices of the Institute of Economic Affairs, IEA and 16 years since the Executive arm of government in 2002 drafted the first RTI bill.

The draft Executive Bill was subsequently reviewed in 2003, 2005 and 2007 but was never laid in Parliament until February 5, 2010.