News:
May 10, 2018
Second Deputy Speaker, Alban Kingsford S. Bagbin has said Ghana’s Right to Information Bill 2018 when approved by the House and assented to by the President Nana Akufo-Addo and it becomes an Act will be a reference point to a lot of countries.
He noted that Ghana has done a lot of quality work on its RTI bill and so far it is unparallel haven seen other legislation passed by many countries, which have challenges and had to be amended, “Ghana could have gone same way like those other countries”.
“Despite the delay in the passage of the RTI, Ghana should still pat itself at the back because the quality of work done, our Act will become a reference point by many countries” he remarked.
He recounted the role he played in the 6th Parliament when the RTI Bill was before the House and added that the whole process started when the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) initiated the whole process.
I have taken my time to go through the RTI Bill worked on in the last parliament and the current one presented to the House this year, still there are some areas we need to address but we should not be despaired, we need to keep on with the fight, he said.
When UK passed its RTI law, they had to postpone its effectiveness for five years, it is usually referred to as one of the bad cases, their law is not one to be followed and added it took long for the commonwealth to declare the Act in 1993.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com