Politics

No selective application of RTI law – Exe Sec

Yaw Sarpong Boateng, the Executive Secretary of the Right to Information (RTI) Commission, has debunked an assertion that there is selective application of the Right To Information (RTI) law.

He insisted that contrary to public perceptions, there was no selective application of the RTI law since such assertions were not true and should be disregarded.

However, Mr Boateng reiterated that in the execution of its duties, the Commission implemented the law without fear or favour because it was established to implement the RTI law and also resolve cases between the citizenry and public institutions, when the need arose.

Since its inception however, there have been a lot of complaints about how the Commission carries out its mandate with some accusing it of being discriminatory but according to the Executive Secretary of the Commission, it took time to diligently get to the root of the issues which were brought before it, which sometimes created some unintended delays.

“The delays does not happen because of discrimination, rather the Commission’s desire to address issues in a manner that is fair, firm and transparent to all parties and we will continue to engage public institutions to make the implementation of the law efficient and effective,” Mr Boateng assured.

One of such grievances has come from persons who used the RTI law to seek information on the cost of the president’s external travels and despite having made the request in February this year, they have still not been able to get the information, and attempts to get the Commission to address their difficulties have not yet yielded the desired results.

Reacting to their concerns, Mr Boateng expressed misgivings about people not accessing the processes for getting information and accuse the Commission as untenable and not being fair to the processes which was not selective but required due diligence.

“We are not taking any pressures from anybody in carrying out our functions, so far, we have done so diligently, and we have made decisions against public institutions, against government agencies, it is for the public to tell, whether the Commission has lived up to expectations since the Commission is aware of issues and is working to ensure the right thing is done.

“The request for cost of the president’s travel, involves Parliament as well and the Commission is taking its time to diligently resolve the issue and the wheels of justice grinds slowly, but eventually gets to an expected end,” Mr Boateng pointed out.

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