The Right to Information Coalition (RTI Coalition) Ghana has welcomed Parliament’s decision to pass the Special Prosecutor Bill into law.
The coalition lauded the speed with which parliament passed the bill in accordance with the desire of the Executive arm of government.
It said that the Right to Information Bill, which would facilitate the provision of the necessary ammunition for the Office of Special Prosecutor, has so far not been placed before Parliament.”
Parliament, on December 15, 2017 passed the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill after its third reading on the floor of the House prior to the reading of the 2018 Budget.
The bill was passed amidst debate over whether the Special Prosecutor should be immune from prosecution.
The setting up of the office was one of the campaign promises by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in the 2016 elections.
With the passage of the bill aimed at fighting corruption, government is now free to appoint an independent prosecutor and allocate resources to the office.
The RTI Coalition, which has been advocating for the passage of the Right to Information Bill, maintained that although it welcomes the passage of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill to fight corruption, it expects parliament to at least move the RTI bill in first year of Nana Addo’s government.
In a press statement, the coalition indicated that the RTI bill should have been one of the first promises government should have fulfilled, considering its importance to promoting democracy.
“As an essential and primary tool in fighting corruption, it would have been expected that the passage of the RTI Bill would be either the first or with the first on the list of promises to have been fulfilled.
“Whilst access to information provides multiple benefits in the promotion of democratic governance, its continued absence as a dependable tool in the fight against corruption regrettably exposes the apparent half-hearted resolve of officialdom,” the statement said.
It reiterated the call on the President to ensure that the Right to Information Bill was placed before Parliament before the end of 2017 to begin the process of passing it.
By Gibril Abdul Razak