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Mrs. Ugonna Ukaigwe, Project Coordinator of Right to Information Coalition, Ghana, has called on state parties to create more room for maximum disclosure of information in the bill currently under review. She said the bill in its current form falls short of maximum disclosure of information to interested parties, which is not good for the citizenry right to public information. Speaking to Ghana News Agency on the principle of maximum disclosure, Mrs. Ukaigwe noted that though government needs to expedite action on the passage of the bill, adequate space ought to be made for maximum disclosure of information. She said this is inevitable in any information law guaranteeing the fundamental human rights of the people to hold state bodies accountable. �The preamble to the Bill acutely falls short of placing emphasis on the principle of maximum disclosure which is further undermined in the Bill by subsequent editions,� she said. Mrs Ukaigwe observed that numerous exemptions in the clauses of the RTI Bill are loosely worded and unnecessarily repeated without being adequately subjected to the harms test. She cited unduly long timelines for disclosure, cumbersome and expensive fee regime, inaccessible review/appeals mechanism, lack of coverage of private bodies, as serious problems infested in the bill and said that calls for urgent revision. Mrs. Ukaigwe, however, proposed that maximum disclosure should be upheld throughout the Bill. She suggested the need for the manuals produced by government agencies to include their policies and reasons for adopting them. �This will facilitate the people�s right to know government dealings as the basic requirement for a right to information law,� she added. Maximum disclosure is the overriding principle of any effective right to information law; however, the Ghana RTI Bill is weak on this point. In 2003, government prepared the first draft RTI Bill to give effect to the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to information. Following national consultations with civil society organisations, the bill was finally laid before the Fifth Parliament on Friday, February 5, 2010. While the Coalition on the Right to Information, Ghana recognised that the provisions of the Bill were fair attempt to meet international human rights standards and best practices, there are still areas that need serious revision in order to bring the Bill in line. Based on international standards and best practices on RTI, the African Union developed a model law which captures and sums up the best practices on the legislation.