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Cost of Akufo-Addo's private jet rentals can't be made public - RTI Commission - Adomonline.com

Cost of Akufo-Addo's private jet rentals can't be made public - RTI Commission - Adomonline.com

This contradicts the RTI commission’s decision that disclosing the type of flight, the President’s itinerary and the size of the delegation, puts the security of the President at risk and therefore, the information was exempted.

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Information in that respect should therefore be exempt from disclosure in accordance with sections 5(1)(b)(ii) and 9 (1)(a), (2) of Act 989,” the commission’s ruling said.

The Commission said aside from grounding its ruling in Section 5 of the RTI law, the responses the Minister of National Security, Albert Kan Dapaah, gave Parliament in December 2021, affirmed its argument that the information be exempted from disclosure to the public.

The National Minister had told Parliament that “recent official travels to France, Belgium, and South Africa by President Akufo-Addo are paid for out of the operational funds from the Ministry of National Security

The RTI Commission said although the cost of the President’s travel was statistical data, which should be permissible under Act 989, its view “is that where those figures tell on the security of the President and his entourage, and therefore the national security of the State, those ‘figures’ or statistical information ought to be exempted from disclosure under Act 989 per sections 5(1) (b)(ii),9(1)(a), (2)).’’

The list of 13 exemptions in Section 5 of the Act includes information relating to law enforcement and public safety and security of the state, information prepared for the president, vice president or cabinet

Through a freedom of information request, Judicial Watch, a non-governmental organisation in the United States which promotes transparency and accountability went to court and obtained information that former American President Barack Obama’s travel expenses for his eight years in office cost the US taxpayer $96,938,882.51.

Original Story on: AdomOnline
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