The National Coordinator of the Youth Employment Programme Kobby Acheampong has described as “pure politics” the minority’s opposition to the new Youth Employment Bill 2014.
The Minority in Parliament fear the bill in its current state will serve as a conduit for government functionaries to siphon state funds.
According to them, the bill has failed to address loopholes that enabled corruption to thrive under the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA).
The bill introduced in Parliament last week is expected to be passed this week.
At a news conference on Monday, the Deputy Minority Leader Dominic Nitiwul said documents available to them suggest that service providers recruited under GYEEDA have failed to return monies illegally paid to them totaling Gh¢1.5 billion.
However, speaking to Citi FM Monday, the former deputy interior minister said the minority is simply playing politics with the matter.
“Anybody who doesn’t understand this; it is pure partisan politics.
“I don’t understand why the minority thinks that is the position they have to take when they have sat in the joint committee meetings and have gone through the bill line by line and made additions and subtractions throughout the proceedings,” he bemoaned.
He said the issues being raised over the bill by the minority are already being addressed by the government and will therefore be unfair for them to create the impression as though the government has discarded their concerns.
