539 public institutions comprising 263 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and 260 Metropolitan, Municipal, District Assemblies (MMDAs), and 16 Regional Coordinating Councils have been designated institutions required to implement the Right to Information (RTI) law within the country in 2020.
During the period, a total of 478 Information Units were also set up across the 539 institutions in accordance with Section 3(3)(b) of the Act while a total of 1,055 Officers of the Public Services were engaged to play various roles in the implementation of the RTI Act.
These include 478 designated RTI Officers, 478 Records Officers and 99 Information Officers who were recruited, trained and resourced to facilitate the processing of requests received by the institution.
Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, disclosed these when he addressed Parliament on Thursday, July 1, 2021, on the achievements of the RTI Act 2019 (ACT 989) in its first year of implementation.
According to him, each public institution, per section 3 (1) of the RTI Act, is required to compile and publish an information manual to document the nature and scope of information that may be accessed by an applicant within that institution.
He said, “A total of 219 public institutions submitted their annual reports on RTI activities within their respective institutions. An analysis of these reports revealed that 85 requests for information were received and processed in 32 public institutions.”
“85% of requests were granted while others were deferred, transferred, referred or declined in accordance with the Act.”
Mr. Oppong-Nkrumah stated that inauguration of the Governing Board of the RTI Commission by President Nana Akufo-Addo in October 2020, the first year of the implementation is another remarkable milestone that has been achieved.
According to him, the Commission has since secured, paid for and is in the process of furnishing its offices and mentioned that the 2021 budget for the Commission has also been approved by Parliament and that work has commenced on its regulatory and oversight functions.
The Minister, however, noted that successes chalked in the implementation in 2020 have not been without challenges, which include the impact of the COVID-19, delays by public institutions in submitting required documents, transfers of designated officers resulting in the loss of institutional memory regarding the RTI Act and non-compliance by some public institutions.
He explained that the Ministry through the Access to Information (ATI) Division of the Information Services Department (ISD) has outlined some activities for implementation in subsequent years to address these challenges.
These, he said, include staffing all information units with dedicated Information Officers from the Access to Information Division of the ISD; Submitting a Legislative Instrument to be laid before Parliament; Embark on a Nationwide Public Education Campaign on RTI; Support Parliament to approve the proposed Fees and Charges for accessing information among others.
The Information Ministry, he said, has worked assiduously and made significant progress in ensuring public institutions are adequately positioned to implement the Act.
The RTI Act was enacted to provide for the constitutional right to information held by a public institution, subject to the necessary exemptions and consistent with the protection of the public interest in a democratic society.
The Act also seeks to strengthen democracy, open governance, and sustainable development.
The RTI Act (Act 989) was passed by Parliament and assented to by the President on 21st May 2019.
Source: MyPublisher24.com/Osumanu Al-Hassan
