223 RTI Requests Filed Since Inception – Oppong Nkrumah

Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has disclosed that 223 requests for information have been filed at various state institutions since the RTI act came into force in 2020.

“Per interim figures collated from the various RTI offices of state institutions in 2021 alone, a total of one hundred and twenty-nine (129) requests for information were submitted by individuals and institutions and were received by 47 institutions. Out of this number, 87 were received from individuals while 42 were received from institutions.

“In 2022, a total of ten (10) requests for information were submitted by individuals and institutions and received by seven (7) public institutions as at the end of January 2022. Out of the ten (10) applications received, 5 (50%) were received from individuals while 5 (50%) were received from institutions,” he said.

He made this known during a presentation on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, March 15, 2022 regarding the progress of the implementation of the law since its inception.

The RTI Act was passed in 2020 to operationalize Article 21 (1) (f) of the 1992 Constitution, which stipulates that “all persons shall have the right to information, subject to such qualifications and laws as are necessary in a democratic society”.

The law gives people the right to access all sorts of information, apart from exempt information.

This the Minister as part of his remarks charged the academic fraternity as well as media practitioners to utilize the law to help them obtain credible and factual information from state institutions.

He said the law fosters a culture of transparency and accountability in public affairs and as such, both media practitioners and persons in academia should utilize it to get access to credible information with which they can use in their dissertations and media works.

By: https://radiooneghana.com/