Parliament finally passed the RTI Bill into law on Tuesday, March 26, 2019 after almost two decades.

It urged the Attorney General “to immediately work on the Legislative Instrument (LI) that will aid the successful implementation of the law.”

“The Progressive People’s Party will like to applaud Parliament of Ghana for passing the Right to Information Bill into Law albeit with few lacunas. We further applaud the boldness of the Executives in finally accepting the challenge to pass this bill into law during their tenure of office, a novelty other regimes could not do,” the party said in a statement.

It added that “individuals, media houses, civil societies and other groups that campaign vigorously for 22 years to get this bill passed must equally be commended.”

The PPP also urged the government not to delay in the final hurdles to make the law functional.

“As we applaud the government for a good job done, we caution the government not to engage in delay tactics regarding the Legislative Instrument that will make this law functional.

The passage of the Bill gave substance to Article 21 (1) (f) of the Constitution which states that “All persons shall have the right to information subject to such qualifications and laws as are necessary for a democratic society.”

Find below the full statement

RIGHT TO INFORMATION LAW IS A SUNSHINE

The Progressive People’s Party will like to applaud Parliament of Ghana for passing the Right to information Bill into Law albeit with few lacunas. We further applaud the boldness of the Executives in finally accepting the challenge to pass this bill into law during their tenure of office, a novelty other regimes could not do. Individuals, media houses, civil societies and other groups that campaign vigorously for 22 years to get this bill passed must equally be commended.

We implore the Attorney General to immediately work on the Legislative Instrument (LI) that will aid the successful implementation of the law.

This Law will bring about transparency in all government dealings and offer the citizenry the opportunity to monitor government policy and project from the beginning to end. It will also help curtail corruption and nepotism in the public sector.

The media and people of Ghana and must take advantage of this law and turn it into a sunshine in government deals and agreement for the benefit of all.

As we applaud the government for a good job done, we caution government not to engage in delay tactics regarding the Legislative Instrument that will make this law functional.

Murtala Mohammed

National Secretary-PPP

Source: citinewsroom.com

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The planned reforms are within the framework of the World Bank Group’s Doing Business Report, which provides objective measures of business regulations for local firms in 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational level. The reforms will cover starting a business, obtaining construction permits, getting electricity, trading across borders, and resolving insolvency.

“These reforms are further demonstration of government’s commitment to removing the obstacles that have long kept businesses in Ghana from reaching their full potential. We aim to unleash the Ghanaian entrepreneurial spirit and open our doors to the world” Vice President Bawumia said.

The Doing Business Report has become the global benchmark for measuring how friendly countries are for businesses. The “zero-sum ranking” fosters keen competition among countries as those that don’t reform faster than their peers can go down in the ranking even if their business environment does not change. Ghana ranked 114thin the 2019 ranking, up from 120th in 2018.

“Through our work in advising Government in over 80 countries globally and over 30 in this region, we know that having the commitment at the highest level of leadership is one of most important ingredients of the reform agenda,”said Ronke-Amoni Ogunsulire, IFC Country Manager for Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger, and Togo. “With the appropriate reform structures in place, efficient coordination and accountability mechanisms, Ghana has the right formula to succeed and implementing an investment climate conducive to growth of businesses” she added.

Ghana’s reforms which will take effect between March and June 2019 include:

1. For companies applying to register without a TIN number, the TIN number will now be generated automatically online at the point of application;

2. Launch of a mobile app and an online platform for the ease of filing tax returns; Individuals will be able to file their taxes online by April 2019

3. Implementation of an electronic justice system that allows the automated serving of court process with speed and ease;

4. Removal of the requirement for a commissioner of oaths in registering a company when the companies bill is passed;

5. Merger of all four starting-a-business application forms: TIN application, SNNIT application, Business Operating Permit application and Business Registration forms;

6. Automation of the application for Business Operating Permit along with instant online issuance following payment;

7. Reduction and automation of the steps to getting electricity;

8. Automation of the construction permit system along with instant online issuance following payment;

9. Reduction in physical examination of containers through the use of risk engine;

10. Government is working towards the passing of the Insolvency Bill and the Companies’ Bill into law by Parliament.

The objective of the Doing Business Stakeholders workshop was to engage and create awareness within the private sector which is ultimately the beneficiary of the ambitious reforms introduced by the Government of Ghana.

Source: GraphicOnline

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According to IMANI, the NPP has made significant achievements in its first year.

After taking over a virtually collapsed economy from the then ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), IMANI observed that the NPP had impressively managed to stabilize the Ghanaian economy in its first year.

For instance, it said the Akufo-Addo administration has managed to reduce inflation from 15.4 percent as at year ending 2016 to 11.4 percent as at year ending 2017.

Also, it said the government has made significant progress in stabilizing exchange rates in the country, helping the cedi to perform better against the major international currencies like the US Dollar, British Pound Sterling and the Euro.

Under the previous Mahama administration, the Ghana Cedi experienced a free fall against those major currencies.

According to the report, the NPP has been successful in reducing the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio from 73 percent as at the end of 2016 to 68.3 percent in 2017.

“Government has achieved some reasonable progress in the fulfillment of its manifesto promises,” according to the IMANIFESTO 2018 report.

One of the lead researchers, Barbara Andoh, who presented the findings of the IMANIFESTO 2018 report, explained that “the general proof for the macroeconomic stability is that the country has received positive credit ratings from rating agencies like Fitch.”

The policy think tank also indicated that even though the ruling government has not started the actual implementation of its flagship industrialization programme, the ‘One District, One Factory’ programme, steps it (government) has taken so far with respect to implementing the policy are “commendable” and that there was a high level of transparency with respect to what government was doing so far in that direction.

Again, it said, the government has taken major steps to mainstream Information Communications Technology (ICT) to the national economy by introducing the digital property addressing system and the national identification project.

The digital property addressing system has been rolled out and the national identification project is yet to come on stream.

The NPP in 2016 had 146 campaign promises for the Ghanaian voters, many of which it has been able to fulfill since January 7, 2017.

 The Report

This year’s analysis of the report was purely qualitative unlike in previous years and has highlights and comments on what has been achieved so far under the Akufo-Addo-led NPP administration.

The analysis was reportedly carried out along eight broad themes namely Economy, Job Creation, Agriculture, Governance, Education, Health, Energy and Infrastructure, with its data sources being the 2016 Manifesto of the NPP, 2017 and 2018 Budget Statements of the Government, the 2017 to 2024 Coordinated Programmes for Economic and Social Development, among others.

The report identifies major gaps, challenges and offers some suggestions on how the government should implement some of its promises.

According to IMANI, the NPP has delivered on its promises in the educational sector, notable among them are the roll out of the Free Senior High School (SHS) initiative and the restoration of teacher trainees’ allowances.

It, however, pointed out that there has been some challenges in fully implementing the Free SHS policy, for instance, and that the implementation of the policy has not really addressed the issue of equity in the educational system in Ghana, saying the issue of equality has, however, been adequately looked at.

IMANI Africa raised concerns about the sustainability of the funding source for the Free SHS programme, saying that it would have been much better if government had chosen tax revenues to fund the project instead of oil revenues, which are not reliable.

 Agriculture

On agriculture, IMANI again was impressed with government’s performance so far, saying the NPP has been able to increase agric’s GDP contribution from 3.9 percent in 2016 to 7 percent in 2017.

The growth, according to the think tank, was partly due to the roll out of innovative ideas such as the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme which in 2017 had 201,000 registered farmers nationwide.

On energy, IMANI commended government for restructuring the legacy energy debt and reducing it by half (GH¢ 5 billion).

 Failures

IMANI, however, scored the government low in getting the right balance between tax cuts and revenue mobilization.

It said the government missed its revenue target of GH¢44.9 billion in 2017 due to its failure to get a right balance between its major tax cuts and revenue mobilization.

Touching on national security, IMANI Africa said, there has been a general atmosphere of lawlessness in the country.

The police service is not befitting for the country that we have, President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe said, appealing to government to rise up and shape the image of the police service.

IMANI appealed to the government to expedite action in implementing policies to fulfill other promises.

Anyidoho Praises

Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho, praised the IMANI’s report.

But he advised that the next edition of the report should be situated in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), saying situating the report in the context of the SDGs will help stakeholders better appreciate the gains being made.

He, however, chided President Akufo-Addo for “talking too much without doing anything on the lawlessness in Ghana.”

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