Chairman of Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Kofi Amoatey, has refuted claims that Parliament is frustrating the timely passage of the Right to Information Bill (RTI).
He told Citi News‘ Dong Ullo Sixtus after a technical meeting on the bill between the Right To Information Coalition and selected Members of Parliament, that the media is to blame for misrepresenting the delays to the public.
[contextly_sidebar id=”rrRPxgoHpI329ZkB6NeNMuHCVTYROWoK”]“The information that is put on this bill from the media gives the impression that politicians are afraid to pass this bill because when it is passed, it will expose politicians; that is wrong. It is a very wrong impression being created about the bill.”
He said, “Don’t forget that it is the politician who is spearheading this bill through Parliament. It came from the executive and Ghana is practicing democracy now, the right to information bill is part of the tool to deepening democratic processes and so I don’t want the impression to be created that members of parliament are frustrating the passage of the bill. There are several bills pending before Parliament, in some of the bills there is urgency…if they were not passed up to a certain time, maybe the benefits or resources that Ghana is expected to gain from the passage of those bills will elapse,” he added.
Meanwhile, Africa Regional Coordinator of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), and Convener of the Right to Information Coalition, Mina Mensa expressed disappointment of the country’s inability to enact a right to information law five years after it was introduced in Parliament.
She however, was appreciative of the work of the Parliament’s Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee for proposing various amendments to the draft bill.
About Right to Information bill
The Right to Information Bill allows citizens to have access to information held by government agencies to promote transparency and accountability.
The proposed law, if passed, is also expected to help make access to information held by state institutions easier.
The Bill was drafted sometime in 2010 and has been taken through over a decade of reviews, despite continuous advocacy for its passage.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana