Cabinet has approved RTI Bill - Dr Bawumia

The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has announced that a revised version of the Right To Information Bill (RTI Bill) has been approved by Cabinet and forwarded to Parliament.

In recent weeks, pressure has been mounting on the government to approve the RTI Bill. Campaigners for the passage of the Bill insist that fighting corruption will be difficult without its passage.

Addressing the Norway-Ghana Business and Investment Forum in Accra, Dr Bawumia said the RTI Bill if approved would boost the fight against corruption thereby increasing the confidence of investors in Ghana.

He said: "Between the rise and fall of many nations is the bridge called corruption. Ghana has taken cognisance of the mistakes of others.

"Since coming into office, President Nana Akufo-Addo has deployed some bold at curbing the corruption menace in order to assure the investing public of the safety of their investments.

"Cabinet has given approval to the Right to Information Bill to be laid in parliament for debate and approval because it is very very critical that we pass the Right to Information Bill and it is our hope that it will add additional feather in our fight against corruption,” he mentioned.

The RTI Bill remains to be passed into law since it was drafted in 1999 and making a number of visits to parliament following a number of reviews in 2003, 2005 and 2007.

It has outlived the administrations of J.A. Kufuor, J.E.A. Mills and John Mahama, who all gave indications they were all for it and desired to get it passed. It was not until February 5, 2010, when it was presented to Parliament.

However, President Akufo-Addo recently announced that government intends to bring the Bill again to parliament and work to get it passed into law “before the end of this Meeting of Parliament.