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Why ‘exorbitant’ fees for information is double taxation-RTI Coalition

The Right to Information (RTI) Coalition has condemned what it describes as exorbitant fees being charged by state institutions in exchange for information under the RTI law.

It, therefore, urged the government to take practical steps to nip such demands in the bud, insisting the exercise of what should be a fundamental human right should not be expensive.

“The present situation directly contradicts the Ministry of Information’s assertion that it has equipped public institutions with training on the importance and application of the RTI Act,” the coalition said in a statement.

The concerns follow at least two incidents in which state institutions particularly the National Communications Authority (NCA) and the Electoral Commission, which either demanded to be paid fees to release the information or turned down the request because Parliament was yet to fix fees for such requests.

The NCA demanded GH₵2,000 from the Media Foundation for West Africa to release information on radio and television stations it had shut down.

But a statement released by the RTI Coalition said the bill was an unreasonable/outrageous fee as the information in question “is supposed to be proactively disclosed by the NCA without prompting per provisions of the RTI.”

In the case of the EC, it declined to provide the Member of Parliament for Ashaiman, Ernest Norgbey, information on the acquisition of the commission’s Biometric Voter Management System (BVMS). This was on the grounds that Parliament was yet to fix fees one had pay for information under the RTI Act passed in 2019 after more than 20 years in Parliament.

But a High Court ordered that the EC release the information within 30 days but the MP was ordered to pay GH₵ 1,500, a cost the coalition described as “exorbitant.”

These and many other situations where public institutions are allegedly ignoring completely requests for information, including very basic information, is a trend the coalition of voices on the RTI says “are very worrying.”

When Ghana passed the law last year and scheduled its implementation from January this year, it was met with applause with civil society organisations seeing it as a panacea for fighting corruption but a year on, it appears they are biting their nails.

The statement said the rather high fees for information amounted to double taxation.

“Exercising a fundamental human right such as the Right to Information should not be costly; otherwise it is no more a right. It is important for public institutions to bear in mind that, public information is already paid for by taxpayers and therefore charging requesters to search for public information is tantamount to double charging.

“This is why section 23(3) (d) of the RTI Act provides that ‘Where the Information Officer decides to give access; the notice shall state the prescribed fee for the reproduction of information’’’.

“The Act goes ahead to provide under section 75(2) (c) that “Despite subsection (1), a fee or charge shall not be payable for the reproduction of information which is in the public interest”.

“Furthermore, it is implied by the text of Section 75 (2), (3), (4) and (5) that the fees to be charged are the reasonable costs of reproduction of the information requested for and not the time spent in reviewing the request or preparing/searching for the information. All public institutions, without exception, are to comply with the provisions of the RTI law, including the provisions in respect of fees,” it said.

With the MFWA expressing strong reservations about the fees NCA’s demand, the Ministry of Information stated that it would investigate the matter.

But the coalition still had issues.

“We will, however, want to emphasise that these kinds of responses from public institutions such as the NCA, only send wrong signals to the public and suggest that the RTI Act is rather making it more difficult to obtain information instead of facilitating easy access to information, hence discouraging its use.

“These actions/inactions by public institutions emphasise the need for [the] government to work with stakeholders including the coalition to implement the revised RTI implementation roadmap to facilitate the effective implementation of the RTI Act which is being touted by [the] government as a major tool to curb corruption and promote good governance in Ghana’s burgeoning democracy,” it said.

 

 

 

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