A day’s sensitization forum on the Right to Information (RTI) law has been held in Tamale. The forum was organized by Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) a civic society organization, in collaboration with the Right to Information (RTI) Commission.
The effort is to create the needed awareness to ensure that effort being made to pass the law is expedited. The forum formed part of the ‘’Expanding civic space and right to information in Ghana in a covid-19 context’’ project being implemented by the GDCA AND STAR Ghana Foundation, with support from the Ghana Friends and CISU in Denmark.
Speaking at the forum, the Secretary to Right to Information Commission (RTIC) Yaw Sarpong says this will offer citizens an opportunity to give feedback to the RTIC and government on the implementation of the RTI law.
He says by law, every public institution is required to have an information unit to enable citizens’ easy access to relevant information.
He has therefore urged state institutions to establish information units at all levels to respond to citizens’ requests for information. The RTI Bill, first drafted in 1999, was proposed to promote transparency and fight corruption. It was, however, passed in 2019. The law provides for the operationalization of the constitutional right to information from public and some private institutions, subject to exemptions that are necessary and consistent with the protection of public interest in a democratic society.
The forum engaged heads of public institutions, private institutions, civil society groups, stakeholders, representatives of traditional authorities, student bodies in an open forum on what is expected of them in the implementation of ACT 989, which is a necessary tool in government’s efforts to attain good governance and sustainable development.
Executive Director for Ghana Developing Communities Associations (GDCA), Alhaji Osman Abdel-Rahman indicates that, the forum was necessary to educate and expand the country’s civic space to further deepen democracy.
Source: Ghana/Tamale/zaanews.com/Lilian D. Walter
