Passed RTI Bill does not have enough policy credibility – Haruna Iddrisu

The Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu has described the Right to Information (RTI) Bill which was just passed into law, as one that does not have enough policy credibility.

He says the last minute decision to make the Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the supervising minister of the Bill instead of the Attorney-General, Gloria Akuffo, was a bad move.

Mr Iddrisu believes that because the RTI Bill is corruption-fighting legislation, it should have been driven by the Attorney-General.

“I believe that the government has already lost [corruption fight] because the shepherding minister has been reduced to the Ministry of Information. Right to Information is not about propaganda or government information or misinformation. It is about the right of access to information to aid in the exposure of what decisions the Executive, Parliament and others may take.

“So in my view, to substitute the Attorney-General for the Minister of Information waters down the policy credibility of the RTI Bill,” the Tamale South MP said.

Mr Iddrisu stressed that because the Attorney-General is mandated to combat corruption and fight white collar and economic crimes among others, the supervision of the passage of the Bill rests solely on her shoulders.

For a Bill as important as the RTI which can strengthen the hand of government and Parliament and other allied institutions entrusted with the mandate to combat corruption, he said, government could have done better.

“What corruption hates is darkness and the RTI Bill shines the sun, so the RTI belongs to what we say in governance and corruption [as] a sun-shine legislation,” Mr Iddrisu added.

The former Chairman of Parliament’s Subsidiary Legislation Committee, Mahama Ayariga holds a contrary view.

He rejects the suggestion that the swapping of the supervisory minister will affect the credibility of the RTI Bill.

“Essentially, it is about the collection, management and access to information. When it comes to corruption and accountability issues, the Attorney-General can always take it up…whether it is in the energy, housing, or education sector.

“Any other sector has to do with the law so when you violate it, the Attorney-General’s Office can take it up. So we cannot say that because it has been moved from the Attorney-General to the Information Minister, we are weakening it,” he added.

The Bawku Central MP said creating the impression that the RTI Bill is only about corruption is wrong because, only in minute cases will the information be sought to be used to fight corruption.

He added that when journalists seek information, it is mostly to be used for reports on social and economic issues which aids in general economic development.  

“Honestly, there are very few cases where it is usually about corruption, most of it is about social and economic development. I don’t think that the media sits there just to expose wrong doing. They are there to throw light on economic, social and development issues, generally, and where corruption and abuse are impeding progress in these areas then the media wants information to throw light on that.

“But principally, it is not to fight corruption or abuse,” the MP stressed.

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