Mahama’s frustration over RTI Bill hypocritical

The Minority Spokesperson on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Joe Osei Owusu has described John Mahama's claims of frustration about the delay in passage of the Right to Information Bill as “hypocritical.”

According to him, the Bill had delayed because it is not a priority for the government.

“…When the president says he is frustrated, I know the president also knows that anything the executive considers something a priority, it gets done so if it were their priority it would have been done. This public frustration expression for me is rather hypocritical,” he said in a Citi News interview.

President Mahama while speaking at UNESCO's International Programme for Development of Communication talks in France said Parliament is yet to pass the bill which was drafted about a decade ago.

The Bill seeks to make access to public information easier.

“Ghana has probably the highest saturation; we have aside from the Constitution put in the legislation to guarantee freedom of information and access to information. I must say unfortunately it will go down in history as the legislation that has stayed the longest in Parliament. Cabinet approved it, we submitted it to Parliament, I don't know where it is,” the President noted.

But Osei Owusu who is also the Member of Parliament for the Bekwai constituency said if President Mahama wants to pass the Bill, he knows who to start from.

Joe Osei-Owusu
“…after this Bill, much more voluminous bills have been passed. It came, they did it day by day till late; new income tax amendment bill, new taxing Bill, they were all done, when a government places a priority on it, it gets done. He [President Mahama] knows that the people who determine the business of the house are people on his side so if he truly is frustrated he knows who to talk to.”

Group slams Mahama for delaying passage of RTI Bill

The Right to Information Coalition on Monday said they were disappointment in Mahama's leadership for failing to ensure the passage of the Bill.

According to the Coalition, “President Mahama has not demonstrated strong commitment to the passage of the RTI Bill, despite his party's promises in their 2008 and 2012 manifestos.”

Coalition to hold demo
The coalition has also threatened stage a demonstration exercise against the delay in passing the Bill.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin