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The Coalition on the Right to Information, Ghana presented a petition today, August 18th 2016 to his Excellency, the President on the need for Ghana to pass the RTI Bill inclusive of the crucial amendments proposed by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs before Parliament lapses in 2017.

The petition which was received by the Chief of Staff on behalf of the President was presented following the failure of Parliament, despite several promises made by its Leadership, to pass the RTI Bill in its second session which ended on 5th August 2016.

The petition signed by the Steering Committee members of the Coalition called on His Excellency to intervene to facilitate the speedy passage of the Bill with the proposed amendments by Parliament.

It also called on His Excellency to fulfil Ghana’s international commitments under the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by engaging Parliament to pass the Bill as government committed to do under its OGP National Action Plan.

The Coalition in its petition noted that the unfulfilled promises by government at various international platforms that the RTI Bill will be passed by this administration is a dent on the image of the country, the President and the NDC government.

 
Below is the full petition.

PETITION TO HIS EXCELLENCY, JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA,
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA

 PLEASE INTERVENE AND EXPIDITE THE PASSAGE OF THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION BILL

Your Excellency, we the under listed organisations and individuals would like to urge you to engage Parliament to resume and expedite the consideration of the RTI Bill currently at the consideration stage in Parliament.

Your Excellency, upon assuming power in 2012, tabled the RTI Bill before the 6th Parliament on November 12th 2013 and subsequently the Bill was referred to the Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for thorough discussion and review.

The Select Committee, as part of its deliberative processes, held consultations with various stakeholders including the RTI Coalition and unanimously adopted a number of critical amendments to the Bill in its report presented to Parliament in December 2014.

The objective of these proposed amendments by the bipartisan Committee is to make the Bill a robust, transparent and effective Bill which when passed into law would promote democratic participation, transparency and aide the fight against corruption.

In March 2016, Parliament began the consideration of the Bill with the proposed amendments by the Select Committee. Between March and June, 2016, Parliament was only able to consider 29 out of 157 clauses of amendments.

However, Parliament suspended the consideration of the RTI Bill without any particular reason and began consideration of other bills some of which have today been passed.

In all our engagements with Parliament, we were assured by both the majority and the minority members of Parliament that the RTI Bill will be passed in its second sitting for the year (May – July, 2016).

Even at the 117th UN Human Rights Committee meeting, Members of Parliament led by the Deputy Attorney General, Hon Dominic Ayine assured the international community that the RTI Bill will be passed by July 22nd, and that Your Excellency has personally tasked him to attend Parliament regularly to ensure that the Bill is passed, but this promise has failed to materialise.