Former Municipal Chief Executive of Tema, David Q. Annan, has asserted that public officials will never associate any form of seriousness to the oaths they make when being sworn into office.
He made this assertion during the public forum organized by the Coalition on the Right to Information at the International Press Centre.
According to Mr. Annan, public officials swear oaths but end up doing contrary to what the oaths demanded.
“Public officials will always hide behind oaths that they have sworn. And we need to look at that if we want the Right to Information Law to be passed. Because I want to believe that, except there will be provisions in the law which would tell them that whatever they have sworn doesn’t apply they will always hide behind that”, he stated.
He also confessed that sometimes such information may not be available to public officials. Additionally he noted that many public officials have not been trained on how to keep information.
“Sometimes, the information may not be available, by my experience. Many people working in the service today have not been trained on how to keep information. Sometimes, they take information that is available for granted”, he said.
Mr. Annan also suggested that the Legislature ensure that there is a provision in the Right to Information bill which should empower the citizenry to have access to information on how public officials use the nation’s resources.
“They (the Legislature) must have a clause that will compel anyone who has sworn an oath to give the information out”, he advised.
