A year on, RTI implementation lags-CSOs

A year after the passage of the RTI law, the government is yet to set up a functioning secretariat, civil society organisations have complained.

“We need to get the structures working to enable journalists do their work with ease, that is the only way will be able to fight corruption” Linda Ofori Kwafo, Executive Director, Ghana Integrity Initiative, said.

She admitted that while COVID-19 had changed the road map for implementing the law, the government had laxed in setting up the secretariat.

The Right to Information (RTI) Bill was drafted in 1999 to promote transparency and fight corruption.

Speaking at the 7th National ARAP Dialogue on ‘Right to Information as a tool to fight corruption’, she urged the government to fast track the implementation of the law.

Five administrations and 20 years later, Parliament last year after series of demonstrations and press conferences finally passed the law to take effect in January 2020.

A year on, there is no functioning secretariat, persons seeking information have to go to court to seek information.

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The Head of Africa Office, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative(CHRI), Wilhelmina Mensah, observed that despite the passage of the Right to Information Law (RTI law) public institutions were still reluctant to hand over basic information, thus making access to information a struggle for the citizen.

“Unfortunately, in our part of the world, public officials think that they do not owe information to the citizenry. It’s like it’s a favour that is being done to you, without remembering that the information that is churned out from public offices is paid from the public purse to which all of us contribute to.” She noted.

The RTI law is meant to put in effect, Article 21 (1) (f) of the 1992 constitution which states that “All persons shall have the right to information subject to such qualifications and laws as are necessary for a democratic society.”

But according to the Director of CHRI, the default position of access to information is that information should be proactively disclosed, “the fact that you have to request shouldn’t be what the position is”.

“Unfortunately, because of the way our systems are structured, and because of the oaths of secrecy that people sign, they use that as an excuse.

“You go to request for basic information and the default position is ‘why do you want it?’ ‘You need to prove that you’re not going to use it against the state,’ all sorts of questions that do not really satisfy the requirement of the law” she added.

She further called on the government to actively involve the citizenry and CSOs in committees being set up to ensure the smooth implementation of the law.

On his part, Ben Abdallah Banda, the chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, said contrary to the notion that the law was not active, it was being implemented.

 

He said he knew of at least three persons that had requested information.

In July, the Information Ministry commissioned the Right to Information (RTI) Secretariat, as part of structures to fully operationalize the RTI Act.

As part of its functions, the secretariat will support the various government agencies to effectively process and respond to RTI requests.

A divisional head is expected to be appointed soon to manage the daily administrative activities of the secretariat.

With the CSOs lashing government for snail-paced implementation of the RTI law, Mr Banda, who is also the MP for Offinso South noted that democracy is meaningless when citizens do not have access to information.

“Right to Information is a necessary tool for the consolidation of democracy..i.t is without a doubt that you can’t run a meaningful democracy without giving the citizenry the opportunity and the right to access information” he noted.