The information minister, Fatimatu Abubakar, informed the parliament on Friday that the annual reports of 322 out of the anticipated 683 institutions were received by the Right to Information (RTI) Commission in 2023.
She declared that to be unacceptable.
According to Section 71(2)(6) of the RTI Act, 2019, the Information Minister told the House at the presentation of the 2023 RTI Report that the Ministry had forcefully pressed the RTI Commission to implement administrative sanctions against public entities that failed.
She stated that 173 of the 322 compliant institutions had received requests for information, and that the total number of requests received by those institutions was 1,749.
“Mr. Speaker, the need for information access by people, organisations, or groups will determine how well Ghana’s RTI Law is implemented. A person has the right to information and can seek for access to that information under Section 1 of Act 989, Hon. Fatima said.
“Mr. Speaker, it is important for citizens to know that public institutions are permitted to exclude certain categories of information from public access under Act 989 in certain specific situations, as described in sections 5 through 17 of the Act.”
According to Madam Abubakar, the RTI Act, 2019 had explicitly recognised and categorised certain types of information as exempt, necessitating the implementation of protections, such as those pertaining to public safety, national security, and/or individual privacy.
However, she added, the RTI Commission has the resources to handle any unjustified rejections by public institutions because it was an unbiased and independent organisation.
The Minister stated that out of all the requests, 115 were handled by the Ghana Revenue Authority.
Seventy percent of the total applications received—1,225—were authorised by the information officers of the public institutions out of the 1,749 requests that were received by the various institutions.
According to the Minister, 281 applications—or 16 percent of all requests—were turned down by different governmental entities for a variety of reasons.
She pointed out that material that is not in the public institution’s possession and exempt information are among the justifications given for denying requests.
42 of the requests, according to her, were forwarded to other organisations for processing, 20 were postponed, 19 were just partially approved, and 162 were referred.
She told the House that the Legislative Instrument (LI) for the RTI Act will soon be finished.
The majority leader and head of government business in parliament, Mr. Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to accountability and openness while praising the information minister for the prompt delivery of the 2023 RTI Report.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Adaklu and Minority Chief Whip, Mr. Kwame Governs Agbodza, praised the Minister for adhering to the deadline for submitting the RTI Report to the House.
The RTI Bill took the country more than 20 years to put into law, according to Mr. Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, the NDC MP for North Tongu. He also praised President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for signing the bill.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Nsawam-Adoagyiri and Majority Chief Whip, Mr. Frank Annoh-Dompreh, praised the Yagbonwura and the Wa Naa for donating land parcels to the Information Ministry for the construction of RTI Commission regional offices in the Savannah and Upper West regions.