Prosecute individuals indicted in GYEEDA scandal — Minority
The Minority in Parliament has urged the government to prosecute individuals indicted in the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) scandal.
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Addressing a press conference in Accra yesterday, the Minority Spokesperson on Youth, Sports, Culture and Labour Relations, Mr Isaac Asiamah, said the government needed to give a clear directive to the Attorney - General and Minister of Justice to prosecute the culprits for their gross disregard for the Financial Administration Act, Procurement Act and other regulations.
He also called for the publication of the financial statement of GYEEDA for the period under review and the freezing of the accounts of GYEEDA and individuals and companies involved in the scandal with immediate effect.
The review committee on GYEEDA
Mr Asiamah questioned the authenticity of the ministerial impact assessment and review committee report on GYEEDA released to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Youth, Sports and Culture and Labour Relations on December 3, this year, and said it appeared to be a doctored version of an earlier report.
Be that as it may, he said, the Minority felt obliged to respond to the contents.
He quoted the report as saying that a management team member, Mr Tapsoba Alhassan, used fake certificates to gain employment and said such happenings were an indictment on the government.
"How were they recruited? Who was responsible for the recruitment exercise? Did they examine their backgrounds, competencies and certificates? The obvious conclusion is that these revelations speak of nepotism, cronyism and political patronage," he said.
Mr Asiamah said the report also revealed several irregularities, malpractices and violations of the laws that governed financial management activities of the public sector.
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As a result of poor managerial staff and non-adherence to the relevant laws, the government, he said, could not account for a whopping GH¢ 1.5 billion.
"Can you blame this on the absence of an Act of Parliament? Certainly no. The debt keeps piling up since this figure was recorded last year June 2013. The NDC government, through its create, loot and share conduct of business, has caused gargantuan financial loss to the state," he alleged.
He quoted some sections of the report which acknowledged the fact that, "Several contracts signed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and service providers were fraught with value leakages, commercial inefficiencies and waste," and cited some of what he termed, "The rather incredulous scenarios of lack of proper compliance with laid down rules in contracts signed with service providers as captured in the report.”
He said GYEEDA "outrageously" made part payment of an amount of $2,028,605 to Goodwill International Group (GIG) from a World Bank funding that Ghana was yet to benefit.
He added that the monitoring of the waste and sanitation contract with Zoomlion was suspicious, the management fee per beneficiary was ridiculous while the interest free-loans advanced to rLg and associate companies, namely AGAMS and Asongtaba, amounting to GH¢ 50 million without Parliamentary approval and recourse to the financial position of GYEEDA, was preposterous.
"These few examples listed among the lot demonstrate clear breaches of the Public Procurement and Financial Administration Acts and constitute complete disregard for Parliamentary approval.
The National Youth Employment Agency Bill
Mr Asiamah said the Minority was not against the passage of the National Youth Employment Agency Bill or any law for the programme, but added that a mere passage of the law would not stop the "create loot and share" instinct of the government.
Compliance, political will and commitment of those responsible for the management of the programme, he said, were the "necessary ingredients".
"Why this indecent haste to pass this bill? This bill is simply being rushed. This controversial bill was laid only last month, exactly November 11, 2014 by the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations. Too short for any diligent work to be done," he said.
Mr Asiamah said considering the endemic corruption, malfeasance, rot and the abuses, as well as the total disregard for relevant laws and regulation that characterised the GYEEDA programme between 2009 and 2012, as contained in the ministerial impact assessment and review committee report, one would have expected the Majority side to support the Minority to do a more thorough work and hasten slowly.