Eastern Regional Coalition demands passage of RTI

The Eastern Regional Coalition on the Right to Information (RTI) has demanded that in furtherance of the ‘’better Ghana’’ agenda, the RTI law should be passed to demonstrate government’s commitment to tackling corruption.

The group appealed to government to ensure that Parliament considers amendments proposed by the Coalition, in passing the bill into law, so that it could become a useful document.

Members of the Coalition and representatives of some civil society organisations were discussing proposed amendments to the bill, in Koforidua. The participants said that the passage of the RTI bill into law was long overdue, and Parliament had no excuse to end its term without passing it into the law.

They said that it had been proved throughout the world that RTI was a surest way of fighting corruption, since it makes information available and enhances transparency.

They said if the government claim to be fighting corruption; it must be interested in the passage of the bill into law.

The participants challenged political parties to show commitment to the passage of the bill in their campaign messages, and journalists to ask political parties about their determination to have the bill passed into law.

Mrs. Mina Mensah, a member of the RTI Coalition, said the bill contained unworkable provisions and asked it Parliament to amend it in the interest of the country. Mr. Edmund Quaynor, Eastern Regional Coordinator of the RTI Coalition, said research had proved that in countries where the RTI existed, the media was the least to have used it and that it was students and researchers who had used it most.

He asked the public to disabuse their minds that journalists would be too empowered by the passage of the RTI.