The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana, has appealed to Parliament to summon the Attorney General and Minister of Justice as well as the Information Minister over the delay in the passage of the Right to Information Bill.
According to a Senior Research Fellow at CDD-Ghana, Ambassador Francis Tsegah, Parliament as an institution should demand answers why the bill has delayed as it reached the consideration stage at the 6th Parliament.
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The bill, arguably one of the oldest before the legislature, has spanned several Parliaments’ and Presidency’s.
This has led to criticisms from sections of the populace who believe the bill has been put at the back burner because it gives the general citizenry unfettered access to information.
“It’s our expectation that Parliament as an institution will summoned the Attorney General, the Information Minister to explain why the RTI bill is still with the Executive” Amb. Tsegah stressed.
Ambassador Tsegah was speaking at the 4th edition of the crystal ball series organized by PNAfrica and the CDD-Ghana, under the theme “Opening up Parliament for Effective Governance”.
The forum which aimed at parliamentary openness focused on the first meeting of the Second session of the Seventh Parliament.
“We will like to commend the house for working hard to pass some major laws such as the Office of the Special Prosecutor law among others at the third meeting of the first session of Parliament meeting” Ambassador Tsegah stated.
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Commenting on the attitudes of some ministers of state towards parliamentary businesses, Ambassador Tsegah condemned ministers who refuse to attend invitations by Parliament to answer questions from MPs and appealed to the Speaker of Parliament to enforce punitive measures against such ministers.
“We urged Parliament to continue to work hard to address issues of national importance on a nonpartisan approach” he advised.
Meanwhile, a senior programs officer of the CDD-Ghana, Mrs. Regina Tetteh charged leadership of Parliament to take corruption allegations against MPs serious because the public still have the perception that MPs are corrupt.
“We have done a lot of surveys [Afrobarometer] citizens have this perception that Parliament is corrupt and that is dangerous for our democracy, we will urge and plead with leadership of Parliament to take corruption allegations very seriously to let citizens have positive attitude towards the house” she stressed.
“We have done very well to pass the Office of Special Prosecutor bill into law, without the RTI law in Ghana we’re not going to succeed” Regina Tetteh.
Addressing the gathering, the Executive Director for PNAfrica, Sammy Obeng also urged parliament to do regular public updates on its website.
Meanwhile, the MP for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak who represented the Minority leader called on civil society organizations to educate the electorate against excessive demands from MPs for their funerals, weddings, parties etc.
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“The monies that come to us as salary end up going back to the people to support social calls but the same public makes a hue and cry when we ask for increase in salary” Ras Mubarak stressed.
On his part, The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ledzokuku Constituency, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye who represented the Majority leader also called for a concerted effort towards eliminating corruption from the country, saying he believes the passage of the Special Prosecutor law will help eliminate corruption.
Summon AG, Information Minister over delay in passage of RTI bill – CDD-Ghana
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