Kojo Oppong Nkrumah
The Right to Information Commission (RTIC) fined 14 institutions GH¢1.31 million for failing to comply with the implementation of the Right to Information Act in 2020.
Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, stated yesterday at the Ministry’s ‘Meet-the-Press’ event in Accra that while many institutions have cooperated with the law by providing citizens access to information, some have refused to comply, resulting in the sanctions.
He explained that the sanctions were imposed because the affected institutions refused to comply with the Commission’s directive to provide applicants access to required information.
Oppong Nkrumah stated that the Ministry, in collaboration with the RTI Commission, was working to operationalize an online platform that would help digitise the application and processing of RTI requests.
It would also transform record management across public institutions, in addition to other measures rolled out by the Commission to sensitive authorities in public institutions the sanctions that are prescribed for noncompliance of any kind, he added.
He stated that the Commission had received 101 review applications, of which 26 were determined, four were discontinued, two were under judicial review, and 21 were handled through the Commission’s ADR processes.
The Minister stated that the Commission received 24 applications in 2021, and that the number of applications received by the Commission climbed to 77 in 2022.
He stated that six determinations were made in 2021, and the Commission also made 20 determinations in 2022.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah indicated that the RTI Commission had received over 1,000 requests for information from people, universities, and civil society organizations, with the majority of the requests coming from journalists.
He further stated that among the 16 regions, Accra had the highest request of 89%, Ashanti had 9%, and Bono had 12.28%.
The rest are Oti, 0.13%, the Western area, 1.28%, and the Central region, 0.13%.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah