Government's NYEP being abused

THE CHRONICLE’S persistent investigation into the circumstances under which an unspecified number of beneficiaries in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis in the Western Region who never registered with the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) were given appointment letters, has led to the exposure of some of the faceless individuals abusing the programme.

The NYEP is an initiative introduced by the sitting government to address the unemployment situation that has bedeviled the youth of this country.

It would be recalled that The Chronicle hinted the public last week with a story headlined “Abuse of the Youth Employment Programme”, following the discovery that some faceless individuals were abusing the criteria for registering the unemployed for jobs.

One of such faceless individuals is Mr. Papa Assan, the Western Regional Youth Coordinator of the Regional Coordinating Council and one of the ‘rebels’ who joined a bandwagon to secede from the Sekondi Anglican Church Cathedral to form their own Church, S. S. Peter and Paul.

Papa Assan, who initially denied to the paper that he had given appointment letters to his preferred candidates under the NYEP, claiming he had only facilitated their appointments, eventually admitted that he only handed the appointment letters to only two individuals currently working in government institutions.

The appointment letters bear the signature of the sector Minister, Alhaji Boniface Saddique, and reads, “I write to inform you that following your successful selection as an intern under the National Youth Employment Programme, you are hereby required to report to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department for further directives.

“Your effective date of attachment is October 1st 2006.”

The letter continued, “You will be paid a monthly allowance of six hundred thousand cedis by the NYEP”, further indicating that “as part of your internship programme, you will be required to attend orientation organized by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, and details of this will be communicated to you by CAGD”.

Papa Assan also confessed that the beneficiaries (names withheld), who are currently working with the Land Valuation Board and the Public Works Department in Sekondi, attended the internship programme in Accra as stipulated in the letter.

A check at the CAGD revealed that 22 beneficiaries, who according to the Regional Director of the CAGD, Mr. Seth Lartey, had completed their internship programme under the NYEP and had been sent to the Region to work in various departments of state institutions.

Seven of the 22 candidates’ names strangely had Papa Assan’s telephone number next to them.

When this paper drew his attention to this, Papa Assan countered that he only asked the said candidates to indicate his telephone number on the list containing the names of the said 22 candidates only as a reference point.

He said he did not see anything wrong with issuing such appointment letters, adding, “Is like coming to me for an assistance”.

He tried to fault the CAGD and the Metro Coordinating Council of the NYEP to have done extensive work to bar the said beneficiaries from enjoying the fruit of the programme without having to register under the very programme.

To him, he had only been used as a scapegoat; that as a public servant, he was not at liberty to reveal inside information and that if he decided to, it would only open a Pandora box. “What is my crime for assisting people?” he asked.

Meanwhile, Life and Freedom Movement (LIFMOG), a non-governmental organization headed by one Prince Armah, has accused Papa Assan of abusing the NYEP in his bid to lure the youth into his church, S. S. Peter and Paul.

According to LIFMOG, if indeed people could be registered in Accra under the NYEP, then what would be the use of the District and Metro points of the very programme.

To the NGO, such an individual had circumvented the due process to satisfy his own parochial interest and as such, should be made to face the full rigours of the law.