The Right to Information (RTI) Commission has launched a five-year strategic plan (2023-2027) to efficiently implement its mandate of facilitating access to information by deepening its presence across the 16 regions of the country.
The strategic plan is intended to serve as means to sustain the training and sensitisation of the public to their rights to access information under the Right to Information Act (Act 989).
It is also meant to enhance greater levels of transparency and accountability among public institutions and relevant stakeholders.
Launching the strategic plan in Accra, the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, commended the commission for developing a strategic plan to guide it towards achieving its mandate.
He said the plan would help boost the presence of the commission and pay more attention to some strategic areas such as gender, youth and disability.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah explained that although the commission was the youngest state institution, it was the most efficient institution in the country with regard to delivering its mandate.
He said the institution had made bold strides in establishing itself and executing its mandate to the Ghanaian public.
“For the RTI Act to be operationalised, three different entities, including the public, information officers and the commission, must work together.
“The Access to Information Division of the Information Services Department has engaged about 350 officers in public institutions to facilitate access to information,” the minister said.
Information request
The minister noted that so far, public institutions had received 1,000 right to information applications since 2020.
To that end, he said the regulator had been sanctioning institutions that had not been complying with the law.
Some participants in the event
“Most applications, since the implementation of the Act 989, focused on matters bordering on the economy, public safety, social services, infrastructure, energy, trade, ministries, departments and agencies,” he added.
The pathway
The Executive Secretary of the commission, Yaw Sarpong Boateng, observed that trying to convince Ghanaians, who hitherto were of the firm belief that public discourse must remain a secret as against a passage of the Act 989, had not been easy.
“I must, however, add that the people of Ghana have embraced this new arrangement and are responding so well.
“The government has so far funded the access to information exercise, and we believe that selling a strategy of the RTI Commission, which is most expected to drive this nation towards the pathway to open and transparent governance, will attract the necessary resources to grease the wheels of the commission to attain the objectives of the Act 989,” he said.
He appealed to organisations, stakeholders and individuals to help the RTI Commission with financial support and technical services to enable it to achieve its goals within the next five years.
GJA’s collaboration
The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Albert Dwumfour, said the GJA was committed to collaborating with the RTI Commission in its efforts to make information readily available to the public.
He commended the commission for having the foresight to establish its five-year strategic plan and raise funds for the implementation of strategic programmes.
“Any serious or forward-looking organisation must have a strategy to accomplish its goals and objectives, so this is very encouraging.
“Let me also emphasise that many strategic plans that have been implemented in the past have yielded minimal or no results.
This is frequently attributable to a lack of effective plan implementation coupled with sometimes unrealistic objectives or a lack of concentration and resources,” he said.
SOURCE: GraphicOnline
