By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Minister for Information, Madam Fatimatu Abubakar, has called for increased financial resources and cooperation from public institutions to ensure an effective and efficient functioning of the Right to Information, RTI architecture.
The Minister cited the following five key challenges: inadequate financial resources, logistical constraints, attrition among RTI officers, limited cooperation from public institutions, and bureaucratic practices as some of things that negatively affect the smooth operation of the RTI secretariat.
Madam Abubakar briefing Members of Parliament on the floor of the House said the five key pointers she highlighted are the forms of major significant challenges faced in 2023 during the implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2019.
“Inadequate financial resources has been a major obstacle, affecting activities that ensure the effective functioning of the RTI architecture, including quality assurance,” Madam Abubakar reiterated.
The Minister also expressed concern about the attrition rate among RTI officers, noting a significant number of resignations during the year under review due to reasons such as travelling for further studies and job opportunities is affecting negatively the operations of the secretariat.
This has reduced the number of RTI officers across various public institutions, making it difficult for the Division to provide back-end support.
Another area the Minister wants the government to consider is the non-corporations and compliance of some some state agencies.
“It’s very challenging in getting some public institutions to comply with certain aspects of the law and that is impeding the progress of the RTI office” she said.
Some heads of public institutions still sign off responses to RTI requests contrary to Section 19 of the RTI Act, 2019 while bureaucratic practices within public institutions have also impeded the turnaround time for responses to information requests, complicating the implementation process.
To address these issues, the Minister called for increased budgetary allocations for both the RTI Commission and the ATI Division of the Information Services Department (ISD).
She emphasized the need for financial clearance to complete staffing and compliance measures.
Similarly, the RTI Division must replace exited officers and populate the outstanding 333 public institutions with information officers to ensure full compliance with the Act.
