General News of Tuesday, 30 January 2018
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
Pressure continues to mount on government to speed up processes for the passage of the ‘Right To Information’ Bill into law.
The Bill which is to give right and access to official information held by public institutions and private entities which perform public functions with public funds has been stalled for nearly two decades.
Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has joined calls by state actors, political commentators and civil society groups charging government to pass the 17-year-old Bill to empower the general public to demand accountability.
Speaking at the 2018 IEA’s Petroleum Transparency and Accountability (P-TRAC) index forum, Senior Research Fellow at the IEA, Professor John Asafu-Adjaye observed that, a quick passage of the Bill will enhance access to information.
“We are really looking forward to the immediate passage of the RTI Bill. Not only will it enhance access to information or monitor petroleum revenue but it also enhances transparency in the public sector.”
While presenting his finding for 2017 P-TRAC, Professor John Asafu-Adjaye stressed the difficulties he faced with accessing information, especially from public institutions for his research work.