Elvis Afriyie Ankrah
Government yesterday suspended all payments into the bank accounts of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) formerly called the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).
Minister of Youth and Sports Elvis Afriyie Ankrah who made the disclosure said “I have written a letter asking for all payments to the NYEP (now GYEEDA) to be stopped.”
He has consequently directed that “only administrative and overhead costs should be paid.”
This was when he spoke on Accra-based Joy FM’s ‘Super Morning’ show yesterday.
It was after a reporter of the station, Manasseh Azure, made a crushing expose’ on corrupt deals by some officials of the state sponsored programme intended at job creation for the country’s teeming unemployed youth.
The story uncovered the existence of ghost names, duplication of names of the NYEP payroll and siphoning of monies from the accounts of the Programme in a scheme that has been described as “a systematic fraud perpetuated by a well-coordinated network of corrupt GYEEDA officials.”
In view of this, government has suspended new modules of the Programme that were introduced in the last quarter of 2012 and beginning of this year until investigations into the activities and operations of GYEEDA are completed.
This, according to the minister, was part of measures to ensure “a thorough review of GYEEDA” and asked Ghanaians to support his resolve to reform the Programme to achieve its intended aim.
The reporter, Manasseh Azure, who uncovered the rot told DAILY GUIDE “if this is a way in cleaning up the mess, I think we are all in support of it because at the end of the day, it will save the nation a lot of money that goes into fraudulent pockets,” adding “everything that I gathered in the course of the investigation including the voice and the report that I filed; the documentary, he asked for a copy of it and assured me that he would ensure that he gets to the bottom of the issues.”
His major source of worry was the fact that “there are people who are working legitimately and they don’t get paid but the fraudulent ones actually go there and take their salaries.”
“So if there is a way of getting the monies out, I think it’s a good idea but they may have to hurry up so that the innocent ones don’t suffer unduly for it,” he noted insisting that “some officials are also taking advantage of the loopholes to make money.”
He therefore expressed joy about the impact of the story he did to uncover the rot at GYEEDA.
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