Leaders of the Right To Information (RTI) Coalition are due to meet the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu and other Members of Parliament today, over some concerns on the passage of the RTI Bill.
The Coalition is raising issues about a particular amendment introduced by the Majority Leader to push the commencement of the RTI Law to January 2020 because the 2019 budget did not cater for the RTI Law.
‘’The RTI Coalition had written to Parliament before this amendment was accepted that we are happy to consider a commencement period but it can be done in 180 days (6 months) during which time a supplementary budget will be presented during the mid-year budget’’ a statement from the Coalition stated in part.
The statement continued that ‘’more importantly, we indicate that any commencement provision must spell out what needs to be done during that time so ensure that the country is ready to implement the law’’.
Read the full statement below.
Fellow Ghanaians, we are at the closing stages of passing the RTI Bill 2018. On 13th February 2019, Parliament closed the Consideration Stage for the Bill, after it accepted an amendment from the Majority Leader to push commencement of the RTI Law to January 2020, the next financial year. The argument was that the 2019 Budget did not cater for the implementation of RTI law.
The RTI Coalition had written to Parliament before this amendment was accepted that we are happy to consider a commencement period but it can be done in 180 days (6 months) during which time a supplementary budget will be presented during the mid-year budget.
More importantly, we indicate that any commencement provision must spell out what needs to be done during that time so ensure that the country is ready to implement the law.
Further, we have looked at all the amendments and drew Parliament’s attention to the way Clause 13 still formulated. Clause 13 exempts all advice, opinion, recommendation, etc in the public service that would affect the deliberative process of institutions. We have stated very clearly that while it is important to protect the effective functioning of public institutions, the limitations must be very narrow and explicit. So we have asked for a clear provision that says that once the deliberative process is over that information ceases to be exempt. This must be explicit not implied.
Because of these issues which the Chair of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee is aware, we support his call for a second consideration stage, which is allowed within the rules before a 3rd Reading of the Bill.
Today, we will meet with the Minority Leader and other leaders of the house to press our issue. We ask you to continue to show your support.
We dont want just any RTI law but a Credible one.
Source: BestNewsGH.com
