The Ghana National Coalition on the Right to Information has raised issues with the manner in which the Right to Information Bill has been handled. In a press statement issued on Tuesday, the coalition said, among others, that the laying of the bill has not been transparent. It said “the critical issue is that the Bill has not been publicized and made available to the Ghanaian population before it was laid before Parliament.” “The Right to Information Bill, which was introduced in Parliament on Friday, 5th February, 2010, was not published in the Gazette for a period of fourteen days before it was introduced in Parliament,” the statement read. Read the full press statement here The Ghana National Coalition on the Right to Information has read with some concern the news of the first reading in Parliament on Friday, 5th February 2010 of the Right to Information Bill, which has since been referred to the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs. Our concern may come as a surprise to the public, as we have been in the forefront of the demand that the final bill be placed before Parliament without further delay. Why then does the Coalition raise issue with the laying of the bill before Parliament? Our reservation is because, in our considered view, due constitutional process has not been complied with. Furthermore, there has been no transparency in the process leading to the tabling of the bill in Parliament. The critical issue is that the Bill has not been publicized and made available to the Ghanaian population before it was laid before Parliament. The Right to Information Bill, which was introduced in Parliament on Friday, 5th February, 2010, was not published in the Gazette for a period of fourteen days before it was introduced in Parliament. Specifically, Article 106 (2)(b) mandatorily provides as follows: “106 (2) No bill other than such a bill as is referred to in paragraph (a) of article 108 of this Constitution shall be introduced in Parliament unless – (b) It has been published in the Gazette at least fourteen days before the date of its introduction in Parliament. The rationale for this provision of the Constitution is to ensure that the people have the opportunity of seeing, reading and analyzing the bill before it is tabled in Parliament for the first time. Thereby, citizens will have sufficient time to study the provisions of the Bill and make informed contributions, by way of memoranda and otherwise, to the legislative process. This is all because our constitutional democratic republic is founded on the principle of the sovereignty of the people, as underlined in Article 1, clause 1 of the Constitution. The current Bill has inscribed on the back page the following notice: ‘Date of gazette notification: 19th January 2010’. But this is merely the notification of the Bill in the Gazette bulletin. Indeed, when we learnt of the notification of the Bill in the Gazette, we went to the Government publisher on several occasions to purchase a copy of the Bill and we were informed that the Bill had not yet been printed. Even on that Friday when the Bill was introduced in Parliament, our enquiry in Parliament about getting a copy of the Bill proved negative – there was no copy. It is therefore shocking in the circumstance that the Bill was introduced in Parliament on 5th February where, after the first reading, it was referred to the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee. This is in contravention of, Article 106 (2)(b). All the subsequent processes are and will therefore be unconstitutional, unless this grave error is rectified. Furthermore, it is the view of the Coalition that if there is one bill that can rightly be considered a bill of the people, for the people and by the people, it is a right to information bill. For above all, a right to information law seeks to give reality to the sovereignty of the people, their effective participation in the affairs of state, the accountability of government and public officials to the people, just as it provides the legal and administrative mechanism by which the people can secure their social and economic rights and freedoms. How can such a Bill then be introduced in Parliament when the public has neither seen, read nor been given an opportunity to discuss its contents? How can a Bill that seeks to promote transparency and provide the legal guarantees for the constitutional right to information be introduced in Parliament in a cloud of non-transparency? It is the considered opinion of the RTI Coalition that this sends a disturbing signal as to what is sought to be achieved by the tabling of the Bill in Parliament. The Coalition, with all due respect, appeals to our honourable Members of Parliament to take a step back and permit the constitutionally mandated due process to be complied with before the Bill is introduced in Parliament, namely, Parliament must insist on the publication of the entire Bill in the Gazette for fourteen days, not the formal process of gazette notification. That way not only will Parliament be complying with the mandatory provisions of the Constitution but it would send the right signal of transparency and openness which is necessary if the people of Ghana are to have a right to information legislation that actually promotes transparency, accountability and the sovereignty of the people. Source: Myjoyonline.com/Ghana