GYEEDA C’ttee uncovers rot; gov’t officials to face prosecution

The committee set up by government to investigate alleged corruption and irregularities in GYEEDA has uncovered gross malfeasance and is due to submit its final report to government this week, Joy News can confirm.

According to sources, some government officials are likely to face criminal prosecution for their roles in some of the irregularities identified.

Following investigations which revealed systematic corruption and questionable contracts at the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) by Joy News, government set up a five-member committee to among others: Review the capacities of persons entrusted with certain key responsibilities related to the mandate of the programme.

Perform in-depth investigations of possible irregularities of crime and related financial loses and actions taken by management to recover possible embezzlement of money and other assets as the case may be.

The committee was inaugurated on April 12, 2013 and was given 8 weeks to finish its work. Last Friday was exactly 12 weeks.

The five-member committee is made up of Ferdinand Ghan, who is the Chairman of the Committee; Edward Amuzu, a Lawyer, and the committee's Secretary. Mr. Amuzu is also Lead Consultant for the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

Mr. Randolf Nsoh, an Accountant, Kwame Edem Senanu, a key member, and Mike K. Garba of the Public Services Commission, were also on the committee.

According to a member of the committee who spoke to Joy News on anonymity, the rot at the Agency has partly been the reason for exceeding the deadline given for the completion of the investigations.

The member was quoted as saying, “the rot in GYEEDA is so much that if we were given a whole year to do this investigation, we would find something new every day.”

The report, according to sources, contains very strong recommendations for government to cancel some contracts with some sub-contractors running the GYEEDA modules.

The report also recommended that some service providers running some of the modules should be made to refund millions of cedis to government as they have failed on the terms of the contracts.