Private legal practitioner and lecturer at the University of Media, Arts and Communication’s Institute of Journalism, Zakariah Tanko Musah, has called on the Right to Information (RTI) Commission to strictly enforce the RTI Act against public institutions that impose unlawful charges for access to information.
According to him, stronger sanctions are needed to deter public officials from creating barriers that undermine transparency, accountability and citizens’ constitutional right to information.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Corruption Watch on Wednesday, Mr Tanko Musah urged the Commission to exercise its enforcement powers in a manner that sends a clear message to institutions that fail to comply with the law.
“I think the way to solve this problem is for the RTI Commission to start enforcing its powers in a way that sends a very clear signal to institutions that the RTI law is a very important law that would help our democracy to thrive,” he said.
He argued that any attempt to obstruct access to public information weakens democratic governance and undermines the objectives of the RTI Act.
“If you’re going to put any impediment in the way of achieving an effective and efficient access-to-information regime, then according to the law, they have the authority and the right to impose administrative fines,” he stated.
Mr Tanko Musah, however, expressed concern that existing penalties have had little impact because fines are often paid by institutions rather than the individual officers responsible for withholding information.
“The tragedy is that when they administer those administrative charges, people are not paying out of their own pockets,” he said.
“People are negligently or recklessly refusing to provide information and then throwing up their hands to say, ‘So what?’ At the end of the day, if my institution is fined, it doesn’t come out of my pocket.”
He argued that the solution lies in enforcing provisions of the RTI Act that hold individual officers personally accountable for refusing to release information without lawful justification.
“That’s why we have to go back to the provisions in the RTI law, which actually say that if you, as an individual, recklessly refuse or fail to provide information that you are supposed to provide, you can be charged as an individual,” he explained.
His comments come amid growing concerns over the high fees some public institutions charge for information requests made under the RTI Act.
During the programme, freelance journalist and editor of media start-up The Treasure, Benjamin Tinkram, disclosed that the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) demanded GH¢10,400 for a seven-page document and an Excel spreadsheet containing rainfall and weather data requested under the RTI Act.
Mr Tanko Musah described such charges as inconsistent with the spirit and intent of the law, stressing that access to information should not be restricted by prohibitive fees.
“The idea is not to make access difficult. It is to make it easy for people to access information,” he said.
He explained that the RTI Act permits institutions to recover only the reasonable cost of reproducing documents and does not support excessive charges that effectively deny access to information.
Mr Tanko Musah further maintained that the RTI Act supersedes any conflicting provisions in other legislation relating to access to public information, and therefore, public institutions cannot rely on their own enabling laws to justify exorbitant fees.
He emphasised that improving access to information is critical to exposing corruption, promoting transparency and strengthening democratic accountability.
“That’s the only way we can promote access to information and ensure that our institutions remain accountable, transparent and responsive to the people they serve,” he said.