Cletus Avoka, Majority Leader in the Ghana Parliament, said June 18 that he hopes a right to information bill will be passed in July.
“We have completed our deliberations on the Bill. We hope that between July 1- July 27, we would be able to lay the Bill before the President for his final approval to be passed into law,” he said, according to a report on Ghana Web.
Avoka has said previously that the bill would be passed by the end of this year. (See FreedomInfo.org report.)
He spoke at a debate organized by the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) about the RTI bill and the National Broadcasting Bill.
Avoka hinted that changes would be made in the bill, saying, “Sometimes when bills come to Parliament, it makes amendments which could prolong their passage into law.”
“He urged Civil Society Groups such as The Coalition on the Right To Information to have a cooperative instead of an antagonistic attitude towards Parliament concerning passage of the Bill,” according to the article. “Please do not stampede Parliament into passing this Bill. Don’t intimidate us, motivate Parliament to work hard towards ensuring that this Bill becomes law within a very short time,” he was quoted as saying.
Kwame Karikari, Executive Director of Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), spoke in support of the bill, and said if the bill is not passed the electorate should make it a campaign issue. The legislation has been pending for 10 years.
Administratve Body Debated
Also during the debate, according to an article by Ayuureyisiya Kapini Atafori for Public Agenda, Kwasi Bandua, the chairman of the Joint Committee, said the passage of the RTI bill would have to be delayed because the Committee wants the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to implement the act, not the Ministry of Justice.
“Members of the committee have, therefore, decided to meet top officials of CHRAJ to put the proposal before them.” according to the article. The decision to accept the offer rests with CHRAJ, he said.
The article continues:
But in a sharp rebuttal, Mr Akoto Ampaw, a legal practitioner and member of the Coalition on RTI, disagreed with the proposal of the Joint Committee, saying that CHRAJ is over-burdened with its three main functions of being an ombudsman, anti-corruption and human rights agencies. Mr Ampaw suggested that an independent commission should be established to implement the Act in order to avoid the politicisation of the process of seeking information from politicians and public officers.
National RTI Meeting Held
The RTI bill was the subject of a major meeting held June 20 whcih resulted in a detailed communique critical of the bill as drafted.
“Participants at a National Stakeholders Conference on Right to Information (RTI) on Wednesday intensified pressure on Parliament to pass the Bill into Law to serve as an example to spur other African countries to emulate,” began one report on the meeting.
The workshop was sponsored by the Media Foundation for West Africa in collaboration with Ghana Right to Information Coalition and the Africa Freedom of Information Centre.
The remarks of Nana Oye Lithur, Executive Director of Human Rights Advocacy Centre, were highlighted in another media report. “Recognizing the right to information and implementing an effective access to information regime is a simple, but extremely useful first step towards attainment of good governance,” she was quoted as saying.
Another article concentrated on the Coalition’s options paper about the legislation. (See previous FreedomInfo.org article, linking to text of paper.)
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