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The Ghana Police Service was fined GH 100,000 by the Right to Information (RTI) Commission for disobeying its directives.
The Police Administration allegedly ignored a request from an application and neglected to approve it, according to the Commission.
Such contempt cannot be condoned, the Commission stated in a news release on Tuesday, June 6.
“Based on the Respondent’s failure to make decisions on the Applicant’s application lodged with it, the Respondent has clearly failed to perform its obligation under Act 989. This is coupled with its failure to respond to the Commission’s letter received by it.”
“Such a posture by the Respondent is not to be encouraged as it is an affront to the right of access to information enshrined under Article 21(1) (f) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and affirmed by Act 989 and same ought to be disapproved in strong terms.”
“For this reason, an administrative penalty of GH¢100,000 is imposed on the Respondent and this shall be payable to the Commission not later than 14 days after receipt of this decision of the Commission by the Respondent.”
It also warned the Police Administration that if it didn’t pay the fine within 14 days, it would be increased by 10%.
The statement said, “In the event of delinquency for any additional 14 days thereafter, the penalty so imposed shall attract an additional default penalty rate of l0% on the principal penalty sum of GH100,000.
Information on the state of cases involving police violence was sought by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Africa.
Even though it was addressed to the Inspector General of Police, the Police Service utterly disregarded the request.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
