The perplexing pace of inaction on freedom of information legislation in Ghana is continuing.
Positive signs include a top government official pledging action and reports from activists who say members of Parliament told them the bill will come up this month.
On the other hand, Parliament has yet to produce a promised report on regional consultations held last summer. Nor has it drafted an “options paper,” as urged by the World Bank, which funded the consultations and has provided help to pro-FOI civil society groups.
A trip to London?
Another sign that Parliament isn’t on the verge of passing a bill came recently when members asked the World Bank to underwrite a trip to London to study that country’s FOI law. This request appears to be on hold. Experts consulted by FreedomInfo.org said that the relatively new UK FOI experience would be a far less relevant model than that of countries such as Mexico and India.
This would not be the first time that the World Bank has faced what it considered excessive financial requests from Parliament. The Bank dramatically pared down what it considered an excessive proposed budget for the regional consultations held last summer. (See previous FreedomInfo.org report.)
Those listening sessions around the country had been called a necessary precursor to action by key parliamentarians. The consultations with the MPs were held in six regional capitals from July 27 to Aug. 8, 2011.
But the next promised step, a feedback report by a parliamentary committee on was learned, has not appeared. During the hearings, much support for the bill was voiced, although advocates also pointed to weaknesses in the draft bill.
Also planned, but delayed, until March 11, 2012, was a workshop on the legislation.
At the meeting, a World Bank official presented a power point presentation of his own about the feedback from the regional hearings. Participants at the meeting agreed that a well-planned tour to visit a relevant country that had implemented FOI might be helpful if it was based on an options paper and included stakeholders from the executive, civil society and parliament.
On April 20 MPs asked for World Bank support for a trip of MPS to London, with a planned departure date of May 5.
Bank support has not materialized and discussions about alternatives apparently are under way.
In any case, the perceived need for more study seems to bode poorly for may action.
Minister Voices Support for Bill
The president, whose party controls Parliament, has said for years that he supports FOI legislation. This week, according to an article on Ghana Web: “Mr James Agyenim Boateng, a Deputy Minister of Information, said government would work assiduously to encourage Parliament to pass the Right to Information and the Broadcasting bills by the end of the month.”
Civil society continues to call for passage, in remarks tinged with frustration.
The Coalition of Right to Information, a civil society organization, on May 1 called on Parliament to act, according to a Ghana News Agency report.
Gabriel Gbiel Benarkuu, chairman of the coalition, “… said it was high time the bill was given the needed attention and passed into law.”
The report continued: “According to him, most public officials had strongly kicked against the passage of the bill because of the level of corruption in the public sector.”
The story continues:
Mr. Raphael Godlove Ahenu, Secretary of the coalition, said the delay in the passage of the bill negatively affecting efforts to bring under control the high rate of corruption and bribery in the country.
“We believe that corruption can be brought to the barest minimum if the Right to Information bill is passed into law”, he said.
He called on traditional authorities, civil society organisations, religious bodies and the media to join the campaign for the rapid passage of the bill.
Mr. Ahenu noted that since the media had a critical role to play in the free flow of information, it was incumbent on them to ensure that all barriers to the passage of the bill were removed.
He emphasised that when passed, the bill would also help increase productivity and consequently boost the middle income status of the country.
The Northern Regional Chapter of the Coalition on the Right to Information issued its own statement, expressing disappointment at Parliament, according to a story in All Ghana News. The Coalition chapter said: “Parliamentarians are either adopting this lukewarm attitude towards the bill for their parochial political interest to continue running away from accountability and transparency or for reasons best known to them.”
The Coalition said the Joint Committee on Communication and Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs should release the report on the regional consultations.
Mahama Zakaria, Northern Regional Coordinator of the coalition, was quoted as saying, “The Coalition is calling on the leadership of parliament to make the RTI bill part of its agenda for its next sitting which is expected to start in May 2012.
The report continued:
“We consider this very necessary because the bill which was drafted in 2002, has been sitting on the shelves of law makers for ten years now and needs the necessary attention”, the statement said.
The Coalition also reminded the Government of its manifesto promise to the people of Ghana during the 2008 elections that it would ensure the passage of the bill when voted to power, adding “Government should note that election 2012 is just around the corner and that their manifesto promise is yet to see the light of day”.
It called on all the political parties to demonstrate their commitment to the passage of the bill and urged all civil society groups, the media and the public to lead a crusade towards the passage of the bill to ensure more transparency, accountability and good governance for the development of the country.
Meanwhile, when the GNA spoke to some journalists in the Northern Region about the bill, they equally expressed disappointment with the law makers and the executive for failing to push through the Right to Information bill, alleging that the politicians were probably doing this just to continue luring Ghanaians in dubious administrative transactions.
Mr. Francis Npong of the Enquirer Newspaper said if the Government actually believed in a free, fair and transparent democratic state, then the bill must be passed to enable ordinary citizens to have access to the needed information.
He said the passage had delayed because the bill was not in the interest of the politicians, noting that “several bills that came after the RTI bill had been passed, yet this bill is still waiting…what is the NMC and the GJA doing to push for the passage of the bill which is to enhance the work of journalists?”
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