Over 150 students of the Accra Technical Training College have been sensitised on The Right to Information (RTI) Law at a day’s workshop held at the premises of the school at Kokomlemle, Accra.
It was organised by the RTI Office of the Ayawaso Central Municipal Assembly.
The event was to educate the students on their fundamental freedoms to access information in Article 21 (1) of the 1992 Constitution and Right to Information Act 2019, (Act 989).
Participants were taken through the RTI law, application process, procedures to follow to access information, and requirements of the applicant and the public institution, among others.
Mr Terry Abray Abebrese, the RTI Officer, said the law was sunshine legislation and would help citizens enjoy and protect their fundamental freedoms, make institutions more transparent and accountable and encourage public participation in matters that concern them.
‘We must be citizens and not spectators,’ adding that, ‘by so doing that we can hold duty bearers accountable to the
ir electoral promises.’
Mr Sosthenes Senanu Nyadroh, a Deputy Chief Information Officer of the Access to Information Division, Information Services Department under the Ministry of Information, who was a guest speaker, commended the students for their eagerness to bridge their knowledge gap on the law.
He said all persons must make a conscious effort to play their part effectively in the democratic process and that it was the basis for the passage of the information bill into law.
Mr Nyadroh said no public institution was exempted from providing an applicant with access to information, except that certain classes of information were exempted from release to the public which has been expressly stated by the law.
He said any public institution that refused to grant an applicant access to information may be compelled by the RTI Commission to do so in accordance with the law.
He stated however, that there are exempt provisions that the law provided, which permits public institutions to do the classification
depending on the information generated at the institution.
Mr Nyadroh indicated that the information generated by an institution must be published in the institution’s manual on a yearly basis and should be accessible to the public.
The Deputy Chief Information Officer disclosed that age, social status or citizenship is not a limitation to the right to access information in the scheme of things.
‘As students, exercising your right to information could come in handy since you can deploy it for research purposes and for self-education,’ he said.
He said; ‘Being an election year, the law will help the electorate make informed and relevant decisions,’ adding that it would help for fact-checking in the era of misinformation and disinformation.
He urged all citizens to be abreast with the law to make meaningful contributions to the democratic process.
The students, at question time, sought to know whether any fees would be paid upfront before the information would be released to which Mr Nyadroh said it was o
nly the cost of reproduction of the information that would be borne by the applicant.
Source: Ghana News Agency
