Bagbin promises passage of Right to Information Bill
The majority leader in parliament, Mr Alban S.K. Bagbin, has assured the public that the Right to Information Bill (RTI), 2013 will be passed, hopefully, before the end of the year.
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He has, therefore, urged ministers whose sectors are connected in one way or the other to the bill to avail themselves during the consideration stage in order to make inputs.
Presenting the Businesses Statement of Parliament for next week on the floor of the House yesterday, Mr Bagbin said statements made to the effect that the House was not committed to passing the bill were false.
He also said the volume of work on the bill was huge and required more time.
He noted that the bill had also gone through a lot of metamorphosis, adding that the African Union passed a resolution that all legislatures of member states had to pass RTI legislations after which the various States had to fine-tune the bill to suit their specific needs.
According to Mr Bagbin, the House had to carefully consider all the technical details and the proposed amendments before passing the bill.
Parliament’s feet-dragging
As he was making statements on the bill, the Member for Tema East, Mr Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover, rose to his feet and stated, among others, that on a regular basis, he had been questioned and sometimes accused by his constituents that he, and other members of the House were reluctant to pass the bill.
The Speaker, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, in reply, stated that it was the responsibility of the member to explain to his constituents that the bill required careful scrutiny and that the volume of work on it was huge.
He said the proposed amendments alone were 52 pages.
Transitional Bill
Mr Bagbin also told the House that the Presidential Transition (Amendment) Bill, 2016, would be presented and read for the first time.
Governor to brief House
Mr Bagbin also announced that the Governor of the Bank of Ghana would, on Tuesday, March 8, 2016, brief the House, behind closed doors, on the operations of savings and loans companies and microfinance companies operating in the country, with particular reference to DKM Diamond Microfinance, Little Drops Financial Services, God is Love Fun Club, Jaster Motors and Investment Company and Care for Humanity Fun Club.