The Adansi Asokwa Member of Parliament (MP), Kobina Tahir Hammond, has opined that Ghana is not ready for a functioning Right to Information Law.<\/p>\n
He argued that no matter how democratic a country is, \u201cit can never be that open and I am not talking about the communist or the socialist system. Even in democracies like America and the United Kingdom, they have space for certain documents to be kept away from the public.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ghana\u2019s Parliament is currently considering a bill that could add the nation to a number of countries which have a Freedom of Information Law.<\/p>\n
The proposed law, if passed, is expected to help ease access to information held by state institutions.<\/p>\n
The Bill was drafted sometime in 2002 and has been taken through over a decade of campaigning and several reviews and it is currently at the second reading stage in Parliament.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”LK1n9wDVxyPfyUWNEDCZcE9lQGwFOup1″]Contributing to a debate on the Report of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs on the Right to Information Bill, KT Hammond told colleague MPs on Thursday that they must be extremely cautious in passing the proposed piece of legislation into an Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must be very, very conscious as a nation, extremely conscious. There can be proper governance without a certain amount of secrecy.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to him, Right to Information does not imply that the \u201cpublic has the right to every sort of information; open access to government invariably leads to weak government.\u201d<\/p>\n
KT Hammond indicated that knowledge is power and so is information which is why Ghana has National Security Services, the National Intelligence Act, the National Secret Service, among others.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t open up the entire gamut of government to the prying eye of the entire public,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n
The Adansi Asokwa legislator pointed out that as at 2007, there were about 53 countries in the world which had subscribed to Right to Information.<\/p>\n
Mr. Hammond, who is a UK-trained Lawyer, told MPs that even Britain which is an established democracy, is presently struggling to enforce its version of the Right to Information Law.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Britain, before the bill came into force, there was some voluntary code…in the first three years after the bill had come into force, there were about 300,000 questions asked,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n
He mentioned some of the questions which were asked such as;<\/p>\n
\u201chow much do individual MPs claim in expenses and for what?<\/p>\n
\u201cwhat advise did Gordon Brown receive when deciding to abolish dividend tax credit?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cwho did Tony Blair as Prime Minister invite to diner?\u2019<\/p>\n
Based on his submission, KT Hammond stated that he is just \u201cmaking this remark so that the House is aware about the implications of this particular document.\u201d<\/p>\n
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By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
\nFollow @ osamidan<\/a>
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