Ghana’s Parliament March 8 began consideration of a right to information bill, with many amendments in the offing, but made little progress.
Disagreements surfaced over the first part of the first clause, according to a Daily Graphic account, which also noted that some members raising concerns over the absence of the relevant sector ministers in the chamber, such as the Attorney General.
“This forced the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho, to refer the Bill back to the legal and constitutional committee of the House,” according to an article in GhanaWeb. Other articles did not report this development and accounts of the substance of the debate were sketchy.
The potential length of the amendment process may exceed the time remaining in current session, an article by spynewsagency said. Parliament takes an Easter recess.
However, there is pressure on parliament to pass the bill, a ranking member on the Legal and Constitutional Committee of Parliament, Joe Osei-Owusu, told GhanaWeb.
Speaker Edward Adjaho was quoted as saying, “It is a very important bill but we need to start the process of consideration.”
Majority Leader Alban Bagbin has made recent promises that access legislation, around since 1999, would be passed before the dissolution of the current Parliament
The UN Human Rights Committee recently asked the government to provide information on key human rights concerns in the country, including the status of the RTI legislation, matters relating to press freedom violations, and a bill that would grant authorities more powers and latitude for mass surveillance and interception of private communications, GhanaWeb has reported.
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