Editor of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper Malik Kweku Baako Jnr said the sudden mushrooming of models under the National Youth Employment Policy, now Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), is to blame for the “barefaced corruption” in the policy.
GYEEDA has been cited for massive corruption following a thorough investigation by Joy FM’s Manasseh Azuri Awuni.
Just when the dust on the allegations of corruption was about to settle, GYEEDA came into the news again, thanks to the overspent expenditure at the Sports Ministry.
The ministry is reported to have overspent close to 200 million Ghana cedis in the 2012 financial year.
When the minister was hauled before Parliament to explain why the ministry overspent and what the monies were used for, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah said the ministry had to pay employees under the GYEEDA project.
In explaining why the ministry overspent on GYEEDA employees, a Deputy Information Minister designate, Murtala Mohammed who was on Joy FM’s Newsfile programme said the GYEEDA models had increased to over 30 which meant more beneficiaries had to be paid.
But Malik Baako dismissed the assertions. He argued many of the models created were propaganda driven just to create the impression that something was being done.
He said the officials at GYEEDA created the models without the proper assessment of the capacity to manage, monitor and evaluate.
“The result is the barefaced corruption we are seeing,” he stated, adding the officials found to have engaged in corruption must quickly be punished.
Malik Baako regretted what he described as deep seated nepotism and official cover-ups at the Sports Ministry.
According to him, some of the names indicted in a Maputo report were names known to have engaged in several acts of corruption in the ministry but no action was taken against them.
He said it is now time for the ministry to crack the whip on all found to have misappropriated public funds.
But Murtala Mohammed who was once the deputy National Coordinator of the NYEP, dismissed assertions that nothing has been done to address the issues of corruption in the system.
Whilst commending Manasseh Azure for his investigations, the Nantong MP said some of the district managers of the NYEP were interdicted and sacked following the claims of corruption against them.
He said some of them were made to repay monies they were alleged to have embezzled.
He said the national security is yet to make available its report on the nationwide investigations it carried on allegations of corruption in the execution of the GYEEDA policy.
