A top official in Ghana’s parliament is blaming financial constraints for lack of action on a right to information bill, according to media reports.
The chairman of Parliament’s Communication Committee, Felix Twumasi-Appiah, is quoted in myjoyline.com as saying that parliament is too broke to sponsor public consultations that some activists had expected to begin earlier this month. Pro-transparency activists rallied in the capital Jan. 19 and called for action on the bill. (See previous Freedominfo.org report.)
Another negative signal came Commissioner of the Statute Law Revision Commission, Justice VCRAC Crabbe, who was quoted as saying that Ghana is not ready for such a law because of poor record keeping.
“You cannot get information from a government department when information is not there… so to make the Right to Information [law] work, you must train people to keep records,” he told Ghana Television.
“Mr. Twumusi-Appiah however expressed surprise at Justice Crabbe’s position,” the article noted, continuing, “He said the retired Supreme Court Judge had been consulted by the Parliamentary Committee and he never raised any such concerns.”
“My understanding is that he has been the major proponent of that particular bill and so I’m surprised,” he said, according to the article.
Nana Oye Lithur who spearheaded the Coalition for the Right to Information said the World Bank had indicated a willingness to fund the project.
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