Exhaust debate on Telecommunication bill before passage
Participants in a forum on the interception of postal packets and telecommunication Bill of 2015 have urged a delay in the passage of the bill to ensure an exhaustive engagement with the public.
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That followed concerns being expressed about the bill on invasion of privacy, a possible infringement of the constitutional provision on privacy and confidentiality agreement between telecom-service providers and their customers and the granting of excessive powers to the national security coordinator.
Leading the call was the deputy director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Mr Franklin Oduro, who decried the short notice given to the public for the submission of inputs into the bill.
Publicity
Mr Oduro called for wide publication of the bill to allow for more time for debate and also enable people and other stakeholders to present memoranda on the matter.
The head of corporate affairs of Mpedigree, Mr Eugene Boadu, said the country lacked the technological infrastructure to make such a law effective.
He opined that instead of rushing into passing the law, the appropriate technology ought to be deployed first to ensure that the security agencies would be able to effectively carry out their mandate.
Oversights
The executive director of the Data Protection Commission, Mrs Teki Akuetteh-Falconer, said that in other countries, there were layers of oversights that ensured that such laws were not abused.
She said the country had the history of experiencing the Preventive Detention Act and that there had been times under constitutional regimes where security agencies had been used to abuse the rights of Ghanaians.
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She, therefore, advocated the inclusion of ministerial, parliamentary and judicial oversight committees.
A good start
The Executive Director of African Centre for International Law and Accountability, Mr William Nyarko, said the absence of laws often gave the government unfettered access to violate peoples’ rights.
He also called for an independent commission to oversee the operationalisation of the law such that in the event that a person’s right was abused, there could be a recourse to remedy and compensation.
Liberties
The vice president of Imani Ghana, Mr Kofi Bentil, kicked against the bill saying it would amount to a truncation of the individual liberties of Ghanaians.
Mr Bentil described the bill as a “lopsided arrangement in favour of the executive” saying “with this, they can do all kinds of things.”
However, the deputy Minister of the Interior, Mr James Agalga, said the prime motivation of the government in mooting the bill was to deal with the alarming threat that terrorism posed.
The government, he said, had no intention to use the law against political opponents.