Winifred Nafisa Mahama, PhD
Deputy Chief Information Officer, Head, ATI Division
Welcome to ATI Division
The Access to Information (ATI) Division was established and commissioned on the 17th of July, 2020 within the Information Services Department (ISD) of the Ministry of Information. The Division was initially established as a secretariat to support the implementation processes.
MANDATE
The Division trains and deploys RTI Officers to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to service access to Information requests to their respective institutions. It also provides back-end support to RTI Officers on their daily activities. The ATI Division is also responsible for executing all other obligations of the Minister under the RTI Act.
The Right to Information Act
The Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989), is an Act of Parliament that provides for the implementation of the constitutional right of persons to access official information held by public institutions (and relevant private institutions that receive public resources or perform public functions), subject to the exemptions that are necessary and consistent with the protection of public interest in Ghana.
Importance of the RTI
- Encourages participatory democracy.
- Ensures transparent and open governance.
- Ensures accountability.
- Ensures integrity in Governance
- Checks corruption
Why RTI Act, 2019 is a good law
- Solid Legal Framework
- Clear Application Procedures
- Clear turn around times on Requests
- Proactive Disclosure of Information
- Oversight Body
- Effective Appeal Mechanism
- Sanctions
THE RTI COMMISSION
The RTI Act, 2019 provides for the establishment of an independent commission to be known as the Right to Information Commission. The President, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, On Monday, 19th October 2020, inaugurated a seven-member Governing Board of the Right to Information Commission (Under the Chairmanship of his Lordship, Justice K.A. Ofori-Atta) at the jubilee house.
The Commission has a mandate to promote, monitor, protect and enforce the right to information that is granted a person.
Following from its inauguration the Ministry held a two-day workshop for members of the Commission. This workshop was ultimately planned to enable the Commission to familiarize itself with the legal provisions of the RTI law, Internal operations of the implementation agency (i.e., The Information Services Department the Ministry of Information) and the status of implementation of the right to information act as of November 2020.
ATI in Pictures
