Fee Regime For Accessing Information Under RTI Set Before Cabinet

A proposed regime of fees to govern the accessing of information under the Right to Information Law has been forwarded to Cabinet for consideration and approval.

This was disclosed by Mr. Yaw Sarpong Boateng, Executive Secretary of the Right to Information (RTI) Commission in a lecture he gave at a four-day training program for journalists in Kumasi on Tuesday, January 11, 2022.

The media capacity enhancement program is aimed to sharpen the skills of journalists and jolt them to modern trends in media practice. It is themed: “Equipping the media to play an effective role in our nation-building.”

Once the cabinet gives approval, the fees proposed will be forwarded to Parliament for consideration and approval so that it can govern the quest for information under the RTI Law and thus provide an official fees regime.

Following the passage of the RTI law, the lack of an official fees regime has been a source of controversy, with many public institutions using the lack of official fees regime to either deny persons requesting the information access to the information or quote huge sums as fees for the information requested for.

According to Mr. Sarpong Boateng, the body of fees proposed to cabinet reflect international standards so that what Ghana charges as fees under the RTI are not different from what would be charged in South Africa.

He emphasized that the fees are only meant to cover the processing of the specific information requested and not to create an opportunity for public institutions to increase their internally generated funds (IGF).

As the law does not allow public institutions to charge RTI fees as part of IGF, he said, the institutions are therefore required to set up separate bank accounts for the fees charged under RTI.