Ghana Web:
Ghana: Sunday, September 15, 2019.
Mr
Ben Abdallah Banda, Chairperson of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs, says applicants who may request for information in
translated language of their choice when the Right to Information Law comes on
stream next year would pay for the cost of translation.
He
said, for instance, if someone demanded that information requested from RTI
information officer should be translated into French or Twi, the applicant
would bear the cost of translation.
Mr
Abdallah Banda, who is the Member of Parliament for Offinso South, told
journalists during a training workshop for Chief Directors and Regional
Coordinating Directors in Accra ahead of the operationalization of the RTI Law
in January 2020.
He
said the RTI law required government to proactively provide strategic
information to the public without necessarily waiting for someone to apply for
it.
However,
he said there were certain information that was exempted from being given out
to the public or classified and that exemption was grounded within the RTI law.
Mr
Abdallah Banda said any law that authorised the release of information to the
public that contradicted the RTI law, the RTI law will always reign supreme.
Mr
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, for his part, said 600
information units would be established across the country, while information
officers would be appointed to manage them for the implementation of the Right
to Information Act in January next year.
The
information officers would be trained on the RTI law and the Data Protection
Law so that they would meet the demands of applicants who might request for
information.
The
participants for the workshop were drawn from the Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDAs) across the country and taken through data mapping exercise,
basic rudiments of the Data Protection Law and setting up of information units.
The
RTI law seeks to give effect to Article 21 (1) (f) of the 1992 Constitution
which states that “All persons shall have the right to information subject to
such qualifications and laws as are necessary for a democratic society”.
Mr
Oppong Nkrumah said the training would enable the participants to be abreast of
the new law and support the government’s implementation drive.
He
stated that government would equip the information units with the requisite
equipment in order for them to deliver on their mandates.
He
said the cost of the operationalisation of the law had been forwarded to the
Ministry of Finance for validation to ensure timely release of funds to the
various information units.
The
Minister said a test run would be conducted in December this year, to assess
the readiness of the various information units and personnel before the actual
implementation in January 2020.
Mr
Felix Chaahaah, the Volta Regional Coordinating Director, who is also a
participant at the workshop, in an interview with the media, said the training
had been beneficial and believed it would enhance accountability and
transparency of the public service.
He
expressed optimism that the manual records of the various ministries,
departments and agencies would be digitised before January next year, so that
information requested by the public could be released in its soft copy.
He
said frantic efforts were underway to equip the information units with
computers and other facilities, in order to serve the public effectively.