Don’t extort money from job seekers - Employment Minister warns YEA officials
The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, has warned that any official caught in any act found inimical to the smooth running of the National Youth Policy would be ruthlessly dealt with.
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Mr Iddrisu also cautioned that any regional or district coordinator of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) caught extorting money from job seekers who came to their offices for recruitment would be prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others.
Speaking at the opening of a one-day management capacity building and strategic planning workshop in Kumasi, Mr Iddrisu urged the regional and district coordinators of YEA to ensure equity in the recruitment of people to cover all districts.
The workshop brought together regional and district coordinators, municipal and district chief executives, board members, management and staff of the agency.
New modules
Mr Iddrisu announced that the YEA had designed modules and effective structures to recruit 100,000 youth by the end of the year.
He said already some of the modules, such as community policing, had started yielding results, with a large number of youth passing out recently.
Mr Iddrisu said to help attain the target of 100,000 jobs for the youth by the end of the year, structures and processes had been put in place to ensure the smooth running of YEA.
He also announced that the ministry had submitted YEA Regulation 2016 to Parliament to be looked at before being passed to deepen the governance and legal process of the agency.
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He called for collaboration between the board and management of the agency for the attainment of good results.
Youth Employment Act
Admitting that there were initial lapses in the operations of the YEA, Mr Iddrisu said the enactment of the Youth Employment Act 887 of 2015 had put in place the right laws to regulate and control its operations.
He urged the board to go through the nuances of the law to enhance its operations to avoid repeating the mistakes made in the past.
The minister called for the immediate establishment of regional and district committees to make for more openness and transparency in the internal administration of the agency.
The Chief Executive Officer of YEA, Mr Kobina Beecham, told the media that there were also modules for youth in health and the prison services among others, which would go a long way to reduce unemployment in the country.
He said the modules had been created to mirror the various facets of the economy so that the entire nation would benefit from their operations.
He announced that the recruits would be paid from the 80 per cent deductions from the mobile communication tax which had been assigned for the payment of salaries of the personnel
The CEO said recruitment for the two-year programme was ongoing and after their two-year term they would be absorbed into the mainstream of their departments permanently.