As part of government’s efforts to implement the Right to Information Act and pursuant to section 45(c) of the Right to Information Act 2019 (989) which provides recommendations and guidelines to a public institution for internal training of personnel, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, in collaboration with the Right To Information Commission, (RTI) has on Thursday 20th April, 2023 organised a training program for the Coordinating Units of two Projects under the Ministry.
The Coordinating Units who participated in training were the National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Programme NAELP with their National Cordinator being Mrs. Carol Serwa Donkor and the Ghana Landscape Restoration and Small Scale Mining Project with their Project Coordinator as Dr. John krugu.
The training programme which was in two sessions, started with an introduction to the presentation from the Ministry’s Right to Information Officer, Mr. Emmanuel Afful, who indicated the purpose of the training saying that “we are here to familiarize ourselves with the provisions of the Right To Information Act 989 and also to consider the role of members of staff play in providing factual information to the public”.
Facilitators of the Training, Mr. Vincent Boateng, an Officer from the RTI Commission, Mr. Raphael Osei Bonsu also officer of the Commission and Mr. George Frimpong, a principal officer with the Commission took turns to expound on the topics of the background, the overview of Act 989, the Application process, Responsibility of public institution in respect of Access, Exemptions and the Decision of the Commission on the Right to Information Act.
The training Informed participants about the details of Implementation as stated in the constitutional Right to Information, held by a public institution, subject to the Exemptions that are necessary and consistent with the protection of public interest in a democratic society.
The training also discussed into details Exemptions of the Act and how that can be applied effectively to ensure that an institution, although at liberty to give out information, does not give out details that could be detrimental to the organisation.
The training afforded participants the opportunity to ask questions and make contributions to the conversation which was an interactive and an educative one.
These training sessions follow earlier ones conducted by the Ministry in collaboration with the RTI commission for it’s agencies including, the Minerals Commission, Forestry Commission, Geological Survey Authority, Precious Minerals Marketing Company, Plantation Development Fund Board, and the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Kwabena Nyarko Abronoma
