Accra, May 15, GNA - Mr. Ebo Barton-Oduro, Deputy Minister of Justice and Attorney General on Friday said the Right to Information (RTI) Bill has been laid before Cabinet for the necessary action for onward submission to Parliament.

"The time for the enactment of the RTI Bill is now, and in conformity with the Government's commitment to deepening transparency, accountability and good governance, it is determined to pass the Bill into law within the shortest possible time," the Deputy Minister stated in Accra.

He was speaking at the launch of Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC) on the theme: "Helping the People to Address Corruption in Ghana." It was chaired by Dr. Audrey Gadzekpo of School of Communication Studies, University of Ghana. The Deputy Minister said the Government acknowledged the peoples' right to access information as an essential prerequisite for an effective and functional democracy as echoed in Article 21 (1) (f) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

Mr Barton-Oduro commended the effort of civil society groups for championing the crusade for the passage of the Bill, stressing that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) considered the collaboration as a positive indication for progress.

He said poor information management system and record keeping were obstacles which may hinder the smooth implementation of the law and called for action by all stakeholders.

Mr Barton-Oduro also outlined government's efforts at fighting corruption and measures to strengthen the legal framework which included addressing the gap in the Whistleblower's Act, the Procurement Law and the Financial Administration Law, among others.

He said the government was in the process of introducing new bills before Parliament of ensure that loopholes in existing financial regulatory laws were sealed, especially in the real estate and car dealing industries which were bedevilled with money laundering. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Nana Oye Lithur, a member of the RTI Coalition, while acknowledging the recent review of the bill by the Government Statute Law Commission, "in our view, there are still critical needs for further review to render the Bill in line with international best practice standards".

She said although the current Bill tried to comply with some of these principles, there were still certain provisions that fell short of the standards hence the need for the critical review when it finally got to parliament.

Nana Oye said these standards as espoused by the United Nations includes maximum disclosure, the obligation to publish, limited scope of exceptions; user-friendly access procedures; limited costs; open meetings; overriding disclosure principle; promotion of open government and protection of whistleblowers. She explained that, although the Bill contained a general right of access to information by the public, "this is limited in scope to information in the custody or control of a Government agency and not private bodies.

"This in effect underrates the desired impact of the law by limiting it to a mere segment of public bodies and disregarding the integrated nature of public and private bodies in undertaking public service functions." Nana Oye said the underlying rationale was that whereas public and private bodies rendered public functions, people had no direct claim to information from the private sector save for that needed to enforce a legal right.

Meanwhile, Mr Vitus Azeem, Executive Secretary of GII, described the apparent delay in the passage of the RTI Law as a major constraint in the fight against corruption. He urged the government to pass the law in fulfilment of its campaign commitment to pass RTI law, and commended the government for its demonstration of good faith in passing the bill. On the issues of corruption, Mr Azeem said Ghana had improved her standing on the perception of corruption index, placing 67 in 2008 as against 69 in 2007 out of 180 countries sampled in both years. He said the country also scored 3.9 on the Corruption Perception Index in 2008 as compared to 3.7 last year. "thus for three consecutive years Ghana has inched up steadily on the perception of corruption". Mr Azeem commended government for creating the enabling environment and supporting anti-corruption initiatives, which have played significant role in the improved score. He said pronouncements by President John Evans Atta Mills and Vice President John Dramani Mahama about what government was doing to curb corruption had sent strong signals to the international world of the country's determination to fight corruption.