The Bank of Ghana (BoG) wants the Right to Information Bill, (RTI) to be further amended so sensitive information that could compromise Ghana’s financial system is not released to the public. That’s according to a Ranking Member of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament, Inusah Fuseini in an interview with an Accra radio, ‘Citi FM’
Alhaji Inusah, who is also the Member of Parliament for Tamale Central said the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has asked Parliament to consider an amendment of the RTI Bill that will restrict the flow of crucial financial information to the public.
“The central bank was coming with an amendment and the amendment was to the effect that information that will reasonably affect the stability of the financial system… that information should not be granted because the granting of that information could prejudice and damage the financial system.”
As an example of the BoG’s concerns, the MP noted that “when the Bank of Ghana is to take a decision or a measure and somebody hears of the measure but the measure has not come into force yet and applies under the act to access that information.”
His comments was after Ghana’s Parliament, approval of an amendment to the RTI Bill that extends the time for its operationalization after it has been passed.
The amendment states that the Bill takes effect the following year after it has been passed.
Alhaji Inusah Fuseini said the House has taken note of the request from the Central Bank.
The House is yet to pass the Bill which has been the subject which has been treated with renewed urgency by MPs after public pressure.
The RTI Bill has been in Parliament for close to two decades but is yet to be passed despite calls from the media and civil society groups.
The passage of the Bill has delayed in recent times because of contentions over whether to operationalise it within 12 months or as soon as it is passed into law.
Parliament on Wednesday put on hold, the passage of the long awaited Right to Information Bill (RTI) untill further notice.
This is because the committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has received new proposed amendment to the Bill.
Should it be passed finally, its implementation will take effect at the beginning of next financial year.
The Chairman of the Committee and MP for Offinso South, Ben Abdallah Banda on the floor of the House told members that the committee is considering the proposed amendments and would communicate same to the plenary accordingly.
The House, two days into this meeting had finished work on the Bill but its passage had been stalled because it is waiting on the executives to indicate when it would be ready to implement the law.
The Speaker Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye on Thursday, January 31, gave the Attorney General up to Tuesday February 5 to indicate to the house when government would be ready to implement (RTI).
It followed a proposed amendment to the head note by Suhum member, Frederick Opare-Ansah, that the bill, if passed, should take effect 12 months after the President had assented to it. Considering that clause yesterday,the House came to a conclusion that this Act shall come into force at the beginning of the financial year.
