Madam Diana Asonaba Dapaah, Deputy Attorney-General (AG) and Deputy Minister of Justice, has asked public institutions to “break every mental and physical barrier” impeding the effective implementation of the Right To Information (RTI) Act.
She has also asked them to embrace the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and E-Governance where possible to enhance access to information by the public.
“All state institutions, particularly those of you with a defensive posture, may you break down the mental and physical barriers that you have surrounded yourselves with to impede the effective implementation of the RTI Act,” she said.
The Deputy Minister said this on Wednesday during a public lecture to mark this year’s International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI).
The event, which was organised by the Right To Information Commission, was themed: “Artificial Intelligence, E-governance and Access to Information.”
She observed the general lack of responsiveness of government institutions to handle requests for information mostly because they did not have an information unit with designated personnel to handle requests.
The Deputy Minister, therefore, urged agencies to establish information units or designate an employer to handle such requests.
She said the application of AI and E-Governance simplified information gathering concerning any public department for easy access by citizens.
Madam Dapaah said AI also enabled the public to be actively involved in decision-making before the development or implementation of new policies.
She said integrating AI with E-Governance would best tackle corruption through services automation and enhanced transparency in information publication.
The Deputy Minister said the AG’s Office had resolved to provide every support needed for the Act to work and for the RTI Commission to succeed.
She said the AG had granted prosecutorial powers to the Commission to enable it to prosecute offenses under Act 989.
Furthermore, Madam Dapaah said staff of the Commission had received training to build their capacities as prosecutors to successfully prosecute offenses under the Act.
The Deputy AG said some challenges associated with the implementation of E-Governance policies include infrastructural constraints that affected reliability and availability of E-Governance, especially to remote areas of the country.
Also, she said the low level of ICT skills in the public sector and the general Ghanaian populace was a major challenge.
“This challenge is coupled with the financial constraints that the government of Ghana is faced with. The cost of running and maintaining these systems on a day-to-day basis is no minor challenge,” she said.
The Deputy Minister, therefore, called on corporate organisations and private entities to partner the government with funds and resources required to develop needed infrastructure.
Mr Yaw Sarpong Boateng, Executive Secretary, RTI Commission, said the role of AI could not be overlooked in modern technological times, adding that Ghana should restructure its educational system from basic to tertiary level to catch up with the modern world.
“It has become paramount for institutions to employ the services of the internet in policy scheming and operational management. Al certainly has a role to play in service delivery and helping facilitate work.”
“Government must drive this nation towards universal access to affordable electricity and internet service, which is the backbone of the digitisation and the digitalisation drive,” he said.
Mr Boateng said E-governance could be achieved if Ghana acknowledged that the world was changing and the need to upgrade the traditional method of tracking information services.
He said it was integral for institutions to embrace the best and right data management environment if they wanted to implement AI.
Mr Boateng said for information to play an instrumental role in the world, all people must have equal access to it and countries must adopt constitutional, statutory and political guarantees to make that possible.
Dr Winifred Nafisa Mahama, Director of the Access to Information Division at the Ministry of Information, said a digitised information regime would promote accountability, and quality of public data.
She said the government was committed to E-Government initiatives to restructure the delivery of public services and implement mechanisms that enhanced communication between different parties and also made processes simpler, easier and faster.
“Government understands that an E-Governance system facilitates the integration of policies in public services by encouraging accountable and transparent institutions,” Dr Mahama said.
