The Minister of Information, Mrs Fatimatu Abubakar, has identified significant obstacles faced in implementing the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2019, during the past years.
In her address to Parliament last Friday, the Minister emphasised the necessity for increased financial resources and enhanced cooperation from public institutions to ensure the effective functioning of the RTI framework.
Mrs Abubakar highlighted five primary challenges impeding the 2023 implementation of the RTI Act: inadequate financial resources, logistical constraints, attrition among RTI officers, limited cooperation from public institutions, and bureaucratic practices that delay responses to information requests.
“The lack of adequate financial resources to undertake activities that ensure the effective functioning of the supply side of the RTI architecture, including quality assurance, has been a major obstacle,” she stated.
The Minister also addressed the issue of attrition among RTI officers, noting a considerable number of resignations this year. “The reasons given by the departing officers included travel for additional education and job possibilities.
This has reduced the number of RTI officers across various public institutions, making it difficult for the Division to provide back-end support to institutions,” she explained.
Another major challenge highlighted by the Minister is the lack of compliance from some public institutions, adding that certain heads of public institutions continue to sign off on responses to RTI requests, contrary to Section 19 of the RTI Act, 2019. This non-compliance has further complicated the effective execution of the Act.
She therefore called for increased budgetary allocations for both the RTI Commission and the ATI Division of the ISD to address these issues.
“Financial clearance needs to be provided as a matter of urgency to enable the RTI Commission to complete the recruitment of its full complement of staff to resource its regional offices in Kumasi, Sunyani, and Bolgatanga.”
The Minister emphasised the importance of replacing outgoing officers and filling 333 public institutions with information officers to ensure full compliance with the RTI Act and promote transparency and accountability in Ghana.
She emphasised the need to overcome challenges and ensure every citizen has access to information.
Joyce Adwoa Animia Ocran, ISD