The Fourth Estate drags Parliament to RTI Commission over information on foreign medical travels

The Fourth Estate has petitioned the Right To Information (RTI) Commission to compel Parliament to release information on the amounts the legislature has spent on the foreign medical travels of its officials from 2018 to 2024.

The decision to petition the Commission follows the persistent refusal of Parliament’s Information Officer and the Speaker to release the information.

The Fourth Estate wrote an RTI request to the legislative arm on March 28, 2025, but was refused the information.

A response signed by Parliament’s Information Officer, Pius Acolatse, declared the information The Fourth Estate was seeking as too personal.

“Verification of the answer would necessitate consequential action that in all likelihood would involve gathering and sharing of information on the nature of a health condition or disease based on symptoms, medical history, and examination results,” Acolatse wrote to The Fourth Estate on April 2.

“In effect, the subject matter of your request seeks disclosure which is likely to reveal information about the physical or mental health of an official of the Parliament of Ghana, whether living or deceased. Subsection 2(a) of Section 16 of the Right to Information Act 2019, (Act 989) disapprove of the disclosure of such information on the individual.”

The Fourth Estate responded by insisting that the information sought was not the medical history of officials of parliament, but simply the amounts spent on their foreign medical travels.

“Per section 5(2) of the RTI law, information which contains factual or statistical data is not exempt information,” The Fourth Estate wrote to the Speaker of Parliament in an internal appeal on April 3, 2025.

However, the Speaker did not respond.

It has been officially confirmed in the past that the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin, has been to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for health treatment a number of times since 2021.

Media reports also suggest the taxpayer funded former Speaker, Prof Mike Ocquaye’s medical trips abroad. 

A petition submitted to the RTI commission on April 22 by the Fourth Estate for a ruling on the matter is still awaiting a determination.

Meanwhile, the Office of the President has released to The Fourth Estate the same information on the amount spent on foreign medical travels of its officials from 2018 to 2024.

An RTI request sent to the Jubilee House on March 28 received a response on April 10, 2025.