Suspicion over Right to Information Bill

... But Awuni allays fears

The Government has denied that the introduction of the Right to Information Bill is a subtle attempt to bring back the criminal libel law.

Mr. Andrew Awuni, a Deputy Minister of Information, reacting to arguments being advanced in certain quarters about the bill, described any such suggestion as mischievous.

“The draft bill as it stands now is simply a draft bill. Nothing in the bill is cast in stone”, he said at a public forum in Accra on Wednesday to discuss the bill.

“Quite a number of comments and views shared by the public have (nonetheless) proved useful and would go a long way to help in crafting the bill”, he told the forum, organized by the Ministry of Information in collaboration with the Private Enterprises Foundation (PEF). USAID and the Centre for International Private Enterprises sponsored the meeting, which was part of strategies by the ministry to create awareness of the public on essential elements of the bill. It was on the theme: ”The Right to Information Bill, Private Sector Perspective.”

Mr. Awuni said the bill targets access to information from both the public and private sector sources, hence the need for the private sector to be conversant with its provisions and make inputs to the debate and crafting.

The right to information, the deputy minister stressed, had obvious advantages including accountability in governance to help curb secrecy, which was a breeding ground for corruption. It also implied that, public bodies published and disseminated widely, information and documents of significant public interest, subject to reasonable limits, based on resources and capacity.

Mr. Fred Amanpene, second Vice President of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry representing PEF, said the private operators considered the act as law needed to fill a vacuum if the bill became law.

He said such a law was long overdue because business operators had been operating in an environment where finding information was onerous and a disincentive to entrepreneurship and business success.

“Access to facts and figures are needed to make right decisions in business,” he said. “They are moreover needed fast enough for quick response to business.”

The right to information is one of the fundamental freedoms in the 1992 constitution. Article 21 (1) paragraph (f) states: “All persons shall have the right to information, subject to such qualifications and laws as are necessary in a democratic society.”

Mr. Amanpene said, to enable the law to work effectively, all the agencies or organizations concerned should be well equipped with modern equipment like computers, printers, Internet connection or ICT.

Those giving out the information must also have adequate training and the right attitude to respond to the requests of applicants.

However, he recommended that the draft bill be rearranged and therefore the word “information” should be defined to give meaning to information, both from the public and the private sectors.