The Right to Information Act is effective, according to the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
The Minister at a Press briefing on Wednesday, May 10, 2023 gave details to the defend the claim that the RTI Act is indeed working.
According to him, should a request for information unduly delay, there are mechanisms for reporting such incidents and that allows the independent regulatory body to determine whether requests or reports have not been responded to.“That is the only measure we can have. You request, you don’t let anybody know and then based on that you say that it is not working, no! The data available suggests that it is working and it is working in earnest,” he said.The Minister also revealed that in the past years, hundreds of requests are granted and hundreds of request are also rejected in accordance with the law.
“If you make a request and do not get a response, the best thing for you to do is to apply for a review or to report, so that we know that indeed you made a request and it was not responded to. It will be way better than to, on your own, say that it is not working because I applied for information and it is not working,” said the Minister.
The RTI Act was passed by Ghana’s parliament on March 26, 2019 to outline procedures by which members of the public can access public information. He encouraged stakeholders and media houses to air some materials on the RTI law for public education. “We have some communication materials and we want to implore you to air for us so that the public is better educated and can work for us in the Act.”“If you make a request and do not get a response, the best thing for you to do is to apply for a review or to report, so that we know that indeed you made a request and it was not responded to. It will be way better than to, on your own, say that it is not working because I applied for information.
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