RTI Commission Slaps GH¢20,000 Fines on MDAs, MMDAs Over Missing Reports
Public institutions that skipped their reporting duties under Ghana’s Right to Information law are now paying the price — literally. The RTI Commission has hit several defaulting Ministries, Departments and Agencies, along with Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, with a GH¢20,000 penalty each for failing to submit their 2025 RTI Annual Reports.
The sanctions, announced in a press release on Wednesday, August 5, were imposed under Section 77(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989), which spells out the legal requirement for public bodies to file annual reports detailing how they’re implementing the law.
The Commission noted that the affected institutions had every opportunity to comply, pointing to public reminders it published in the Ghanaian Times back in January and again in the Daily Graphic in April.
Despite that, the reports never came in — and with the statutory deadline for submitting the consolidated 2025 report to Parliament now passed, the missing submissions have real consequences for the Commission’s own obligations.
Each defaulting institution now has 14 days from receiving formal notice to cough up the GH¢20,000 fine. The Commission made clear this isn’t the end of the road for non-compliance either — institutions that blow past the deadline will face further enforcement action.
Heads of public institutions were reminded in no uncertain terms that filing these reports isn’t optional. It’s a legal obligation under Act 989, full stop.
“The Commission remains committed to enforcing Act 989 and promoting transparency, accountability and access to information in Ghana,” Executive Secretary Genevieve Shirley Lartey said in the statement.
Going forward, the Commission is pushing public institutions to tighten up their internal reporting systems so this doesn’t become a recurring headache — for them or for the transparency drive the RTI Act was built to support.
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