Confirmed! AG Dept. can't cancel GYEEDA contracts

Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dominic Ayine, has confirmed a Joy News report to the effect that, his ministry does not have the mandate to cancel contracts entered by the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) and its service providers.

Speaking Saturday on weekly news analysis programme Newsfile on Joy News TV and also live on Joy FM, Mr. Dominic Ayine stated: "you cannot purport to cancel a contract to which you are not a party".

A source at the department this week told Joy News the ministries, departments and agencies which entered into the contracts with service providers were those who could retrieve the money and cancel the contract and not the AG's Department.

GYEEDA's service providers currently owe the state over GHS200m over such suspicious contracts.

But the deputy minister said, his ministry can advise the government agency to cancel a contract with its service providers deemed questionable.

He, however, denied the suggestion that the A-G's department cannot retrieve the over GHS200m owed the state by service providers under GYEEDA.

According to Mr. Ayine, the department has the mandate to retrieve the funds from the service providers, but that will depend on evidence made available after ongoing investigations by the Economic and Organised Crime Unit (EOCO).

"There was no categorical statement to the effect the AG cannot retrieve the monies...we (A-G's Department) need evidence from EOCO's investigations to go for the money", Mr. Ayine told host of the programme, Sampson Lardi Ayenini via phone.