Executive Secretary of the Right to Information Commission, Yaw Sarpong Boateng, has asked public institutions without Information Officers to as a matter of urgency set up Units to facilitate delivery of information to applicants.
He said heads of institutions who fail to comply will be sanctioned.
Mr. Sarpong said the Commission is setting up a special court to prosecute Institutions and persons who impede or delay information upon request. He said this at an RTI Stakeholders Conference on the Law, in Accra.
The RTI Commission was established to implement the RTI law and also resolve cases between citizens and public institutions, when the need arises. Since its inception, the Commission chalked up some successes in granting information to the public as well as faced challenges such as finance and delays.
Speaking at the forum, the Executive Secretary of the Right to Information Commission, Yaw Sarpong, said the inability of having information officers in public institutions, agencies, and departments is impeding the work of the commission. He said in circumstances where there are no information officers, the heads of the agencies or institutions should be treated as information officers to step in the gap as they take measures to establish offices. Mr Sarpong said it’s unfortunate that some institutions are not even aware that they even have to put in place an information unit.
The Head of Access to Information Division at the Ministry of Information, Dr Nafisa Mahama, said apart from managing the behavioral needs of staff, her ministry is working to digitize the system to fast the delivery of right to information requesters.
Stakeholders were of the view that a lot more education needs to be done for both the public and institutions to know what is expected of them. They also called for a collective effort to dispel all negative issues about the right to information as well as have a way to measure progress to know how much has been achieved.
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