The GYEEDA report... sabotage within?

The GYEEDA report and its handling so far tells the whole story. President John Dramani Mahama is in very big trouble but the trouble makers are in his own backyard.

Yes, it is true that some elements of the opposition have embarked upon a campaign of lies, slander and vilification against the President but that is not the whole story.

The deeds of the misguided elements in the opposition would have come to nothing if Presidential staffers, ministers and other Government functionaries were doing their work and were committed to the commitment and circumspection and or leadership required of persons entrusted with the management of public funds and exercised same at all times. Ghana must do all it can to sustain this programme for the sake of the youth…”

The committee went ballistic when it described the incompetence of the Chief Financial Officer of GYEEDA. It states “the current CFO (Deputy National Co-coordinator, Finance), the most senior finance person has no track record as a competent head of finance, indeed, the CFO admits he lacks the training and experience to operate effectively as head of finance. Accordingly, he is not able to bring best practice influence to bear on GYEEDA in terms of demonstrating financial responsibility, transparency, accountability and ethical conduct in financial resource management…”

Indeed, the President is not mentioned even once in the GYEEDA report and yet he is the one who takes all the flak. This is the case because of the tendency in his own administration to heap all the rubbish on him and take all credit away from him. Most Ministers are quick to take the credit for all the good that happens in their sectors but with the speed of light all negatives are heaped on President Mahama.

Perhaps, the President himself also ought to take some of the blame. Why did he receive the GYEEDA report when he did not set up the committee? If the Ministry of Youth and Sports which set up the committee had to report to the President it had to prepare its own conclusions on the report for the consideration of the President. It did not. It simply made the President the fall guy.

Unfortunately, the ministry just got hold of the report and handed it over to the President for him to sweat over it and face public ridicule and anger. At the end of the day the Minister of Youth and Sports is looking very good and the President is looking very bad in the eyes of the public.

Having read through the report very carefully, it is also clear that the Mills administration initiated moves to cure the ills of the NYEP especially under the leadership of Clement Kofi Humado.

It was in this period that consultants were engaged to develop an organisational structure for GYEEDA and also to draft a law regulating its operations.

In the heat to blame the President for every and anything, these far reaching measures are overlooked and the Presidential bashing continues unabated.

The problems with the appointment of Municipal and District Chief Executives, the agitations on the labour front, the unease on the campuses of the universities and some unreasonable economic measures which all plaque the Mahama administration are avoidable.

They have assumed huge dimensions because it appears that no clear centre has emerged in Government and also because it is increasingly becoming each one for himself and God for us all affair.

President Mahama must sit up or his own people will finish him even before the opposition gets close.

For now, the problem is not the opposition but the president’s own people.