Gov't to blame for GYEEDA woes - Amaliba

A member of the legal team of the governing National Democratic Congress, Abraham Amaliba, says the current administration has committed a "great mistake" by not initiating reforms at the Ghana Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA), when it took over power from the New Patriotic Party.

According to Mr. Amaliba, government ought to have carried out a total overhaul of operations at the former National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), just like it has done at the National Health Insurance Authority which saw the nation save funds, which hitherto were going into individual hands.

A similar move he said, could have avoided the situation where people took advantage of the system and awarded contracts without recourse to the law.

Government earlier this week, released a report on investigations into alleged rot in the operations of the Agency. The report describes serious lapses and a disturbing trend of financial impropriety at the youth employment agency.

The investigation was commissioned by the Ministry of Youth and Sports which has oversight responsibility on GYEEDA. The report was given to President John Mahama who turned it over to his presidential adviser, P.V Obeng, to review and recommend an action plan on the content of the report.

The report recommended the institution of a GYEEDA bill and asked the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) to prosecute officials cited as engaging in financial impropriety. It also recommended an interim management team to manage the youth agency.

It listed among others, the lack of a legal framework to guide managers in entering into contractual agreements with service providers.

Speaking Saturday on Newsfile, Mr. Amaliba said: "The NDC administration made a great mistake by inheriting the GYEEDA and moving along with it".

He said the lack of a legal framework was not so fatal as the managers could have been guided by provisions in the procurement law in entering into contractual agreements with service providers. He, therefore, urged the agencies concerned to follow through the recommendations and ensure that all monies lost to the state are retrieved.

Contributing to the discussion, Editor-in-Chief of the New crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako described as "a shame and failure on the part of the state", for such an agency to have been in operation without laws regulating it.

Mr. Baako was worried the committee could not trace documents covering contracts the agency awarded between 2007 and 2008.