The Right to Information (RTI) Commission fined 14 public organizations a total of GH1,310,000 for disobeying its directives to provide applicants with access to the material they sought.
Since the Commission's operationalization in 2020, the institutions have been a part of 26 review applications that have been decided.
When speaking yesterday at the Meet-the-Press series in Accra, the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, revealed this information. He listed limited cooperation from public institutions as one of the issues preventing the RTI Law's implementation, which shows the number of compliance exercises carried out by the Commission.
The purpose of the press conference was to showcase the RTI Commission's achievements, difficulties, and future plans while providing the media with the chance to ask questions.
On May 21, 2019, Parliament enacted RTI Act 989.
Article 21 (1) (f) of the 1992 Constitution establishes the right to information.
The statute ensures that the public has access to information from relevant public institutions and commercial organizations.
Additionally, it makes it simpler for the general public to take advantage of the advantages associated with the right to access information, as stipulated by the Constitution of 1992.
Even though the RTI Act guarantees the public's right to access information from public bodies, some categories of information must be kept secret due to legal requirements.
Some classified information may not be disclosed to the public, including information on the president, the cabinet, law enforcement, and public safety.
Institutions The Keta Municipal Assembly, the Lands Commission, and Ghana Oil PLC (GOIL) are some of the institutions that have received fines.
The Ghana Cocoa Board, the Ministry of Education, and the Ghana Police Service are among those that have received penalties.
greater demands
According to Mr. Nkrumah, the number of requests for access to information has grown throughout the three years since the Act's introduction, going from 50 in 2020 to 382 in 2022.
The majority of the time, he said, the administrators of institutions who faced administrative fines were those who refused to speak with information officers sent by the ministry to those institutions.
Mr. Nkrumah urged heads of institutions to completely implement the RTI Law and mentioned that the Right to Information (RTI) has been included as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for all Chief Directors by the Office of the Head of Civil Service.
He stressed that "now it is a requirement under the performance contract of Chief Directors to ensure that the RTI law is fully institutionalized."
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