Freedom of information legislation for Ghana has been referred to a parliamentary committee, according to supporters and media reports.
The legislation was supported in remarks Sept. 16 by Deputy Minister for Information, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa. He was quoted as saying that the government is commited to doing everything possible to ensure the passage of the bill.
He also said that “record keeping remains a huge challenge facing the country” in efforts to the passage of a FOI bill.
“We are not doing well in our archival system in the public sector that remains a huge challenge for us as we get set for the Freedom of Information Bill,” he said, according to a report on a government website. He also said that discussions are ongoing to raise enough resources to put record keeping in the country in good shape in readiness for the FOI bill.
Ablakwa was contributing to a video conference linking participants from Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone at the World Bank office in Accra on the theme, “Getting ready for the implementation of the FOI: Drawing lessons from the international experience.”
Also according to the website:
Mr. Kojo Asante of the Centre for Democratic Development, who moderated the programme in Accra, said attempts were being made to resource the joint parliamentary committee on constitutional, legal, parliamentary and communications to undertake nationwide hearing to solicit inputs from the public into shaping of the bill.
Mr. Asante said FOI was imperative in the country to ensure transparency especially, with the discovery of oil, as there was the need for the people to be abreast with events.
Another expression of support for FOI came in an article on Ghanaweb.com: saying that Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, “has assured Ghanaians, especially media practitioners that plans are far advanced to ensure the passing of the Freedom of Information Bill.” The account continued, “He said the Bill is a significant and critical one and therefore is being treated with great care to ensure that it is flawless when passed.”
Activists Support Passage, With Changes
Meanwhile, activists are pressing for passage, but see flaws in the proposal.
Nana Oye Lithur, a legal practitioner and a human rights activist, recently was quoted as a leader of the Coalition on the Right to Information. “The coalition maintains that the right to information is fundamental to the realization of economic and social rights as well as civil and political rights,” she said, adding, “It seeks to promote accountability and empowerment of the citizenry in a democratic society.”
According to a report by the Ghana News Agency, she said that “numerous provisions in the bill had still not been reviewed to reflect international best practice standards.” The report continued:
Nana Oye Lithur said even though the current RTI Bill stipulated that it was the responsibility of the government to provide information on governance, the principle of maximum disclosure was however undermined by undue delay, cumbersome and rather expensive fee regime and lack of coverage of private bodies.
Nana Oye Lithur said maximum disclosure was the overriding principle of any effective freedom of information law but the RTI Bill was still weak on that point.
“It is further undermined by the numerous exemptions from clauses 5-17, some of which are loosely worded and unnecessarily repeated without being adequately subjected to the harms test”, she said.
She suggested that there should be a requirement for the manuals produced by government agencies to include their policies and reasons for adopting them.
This would facilitate the peoples’ right to know government dealings as the basic requirement for the right to Information Law.
She suggested that the RTI Law should cover all public bodies, including the Chieftaincy Institution, to ensure complete freedom of information for the Ghanaian public.
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