NYEP Coordinator accused of embezzling employees allowances

Wa, Nov. 8, GNA – Some assembly members of the Nadowli District has called on Mr. Enoch T. Mensah, Minister of Youth and Employment to investigate alleged malfeasance and embezzlement of employees’ allowances by the Nadowli District Coordinator of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) .

A statement jointly issued and signed by five assembly members revealed that 105 employees under the teaching model of the programme had been denied their July 2010 allowances for no reason.

Some employees of the model whom the assembly members followed to the bank to collect their seven months allowances were given only one month's allowance each.

The statement alleged that in the presence of the assembly members, the NYEP Coordinator, Mr. Bartholomew Nanbzing withdrew some employees’ allowances from the bank by himself.

The assembly members said a good number of the employees who had left the programme for further studies had not also been paid their allowances.

This category of employees had been called to the office and asked to sign chits to enable the Coordinator to withdraw their allowances from the bank, the statement alleged.

However, those of them who were in school but were perceived to be Mr. Nanbzing’s sympathisers were still receiving their allowances for no work done while he also replaced some beneficiaries with his sympathisers.

The assembly members accused the Coordinator of turning the NYEP into a business entity and a gold mine for himself with no due regard for the principles of the programme.

“ For instance, an amount of 100 Ghana Cedis was announced as training and feeding allowance for the beneficiaries but this had not been paid them. They have also been denied their first month of appointment allowances”, the statement alleged.

The assembly members said they had written to the sector Minister to complain about the rot in the Nadowli NYEP but as at now no action had been taken.

They said they had also confronted Mr. Nanbzing and complained about his unorthodox handling and dealings with the employees’ allowances and he alleged that all allowances that he had withdrawn from the bank had been paid into government chest.

The statement appealed to the sector Minister to order proper auditing processes into the operations of the NYEP nationwide while efforts were made to pay allowances to beneficiaries who had worked on the programme but had not been paid.

“We want the ghost names in the NYEP pay roll as well as those who are in school but are still receiving pay to be removed.

"We are also calling on the Sunzele Rural Bank to stop the practice of allowing the Coordinator to withdraw beneficiaries allowances from their accounts”, the statement declared.

The assembly members explained that they would embark on demonstrations against the Coordinator if no action was taken by the sector Minister, saying “Our concern is to stop the coordinator from continuously embezzling his younger brothers and sisters' allowances”.

In a related development, many Community Teaching Assistants under the programme in the Wa Municipality are also agitating to go on demonstration to press home demands for their unpaid allowances.

Some of them who spoke to the GNA said they had worked for more than a year now but had received no allowance from the Programme.

They accused officials at the NYEP's Regional Office of playing politics with the programme and appealed to government to ensure that the programme was devoid of politics or any type of discrimination.