Search canoes before they leave shores - Kofi Adams

Managing Editor of the Daily Searchlight, Kenneth Agyei Kuranchie, has opined with strong conviction that the misappropriation of monies by officialdom cited in the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA) report can end up like the brouhaha over judgment debts.

According to him, the setting up of the P.V Obeng team by President John Dramani Mahama to review the GYEEDA report is nothing but a smokescreen to cover up.

“….the setting up of this new committee with P.V Obeng in charge is an indication that the president and his cronies are deleting any trace at recovering the monies...it is not even known to Ghanaians whether the report in the president’s custody is the final report or the draft report,” he said.

Speaking on Okay fm, he opined that since the five-member committee led by Ferdinand Gunn which was set up by Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Minister for Youth and Sports, was working for the president, there was no need for the president to instruct P.V. Obeng to set up another team to review the GYEEDA report; averring that it is a “waste of state funds because the committees will be paid for the services”.

“….the numerous committees are coming up due to the fact that someone has been employed to make sure that the money which was stated in the report will not be recovered,” he added.

He preferred that the president instructs a recognized body which is mandated by law to audit the activities of GYEEDA and not some special committees which will make the country spend more money.

“…the Attorney General is mandated by law to send any recommendation made by the Auditor General to court to recover or address the issue and not P.V Obeng or Elvis Afriyie Ankrah’s committees; because the law does not empower the A-G to act on any report relating to financial malfeasance except from [the] Auditor General,” he pontificated.

Therefore, he said, “the path taken by President Mahama is heading towards a deep dark slippery road and not the recovery of the money”.