For ignoring and refusing to grant a legitimate request for information by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Africa, the Right To Information Commission has fined the Ghana Police Service GH¢100,000.

CHRI had written to police chief George Akuffo Dampare asking to know the status of cases of police brutality against civilians but drew blank.

In a statement, the RTI Commission said: “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”, the statement added.

The Commission said “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¢100,000.00 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”.

“The penalty, so imposed, shall attract an additional default penalty rate of l0% on the principal penalty sum of GH¢100,000.00 in the event of default for any additional 14 days, thereafter.”