The President of the Republic of Ghana, H. E. John Dramani Mahama met with Anti-Corruption Campaigners at the Flagstaff House on the 15th of November, 2013, where he gave some policy directives on his commitment to fight corruption in the country.
In the spirit of transparency and openness, His Excellency the President, at this meeting, directed the Attorney General’s Department and Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, the Ministry of Youth and Sports as well as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) to take the following measures to resolve all the concerns raised in the GYEEDA Report.
These are:
i. Place a moratorium on the creation of new modules under GYEEDA;
ii. Suspend all payments on GYEEDA contracts;
iii. Secure refund of all monies wrongfully paid to or appropriated by an individual or companies from contracts with GYEEDA;
iv. Effect payment of arrears to workers of GYEEDA up to the end of the year;
v. Undertake a complete review of all GYEEDA modules and the accompanying contracts to ensure Value for Money (VFM); and
vi. Cancel all contracts that do not pass the Value for Money test.
In compliance with His Excellency’s directives, the following measures have so far been taken:
i. A moratorium on the creation of new modules has been issued since the inception of the Ministerial Impact Assessment & Review Committee early this year and this is still in force.
ii. Notice is hereby given that; all payments to GYEEDA Service Providers have been suspended until further notice.
iii. The Attorney General’s Department and Ministry of Justice has issued demand notices to all Service Providers who owe GYEEDA to retrieve all monies owed the Agency.
iv. All outstanding allowances owed GYEEDA beneficiaries have been processed and the Accounts of the beneficiaries will be credited by the 20th December, 2013. In addition, all the outstanding salary arrears of GYEEDA staff have been processed and would be paid also by 20th December, 2013.
v. To date, over thirty (30) people, including the Minister of Youth and Sports and other Ministers of State as well as some former Ministers were invited and interrogated or questioned by a team of Law Enforcement Agencies based at the Headquarters of EOCO. Some of the people questioned were detained whilst some others were granted bail.
It is also instructive to know that a Committee has been formed to determine the Value for Money Test of the various GYEEDA Contracts and advice accordingly.
On the basis of the Report of the Committee all the GYEEDA Modules will be reviewed and those that do not meet the Value for Money Test, cancelled. As part of measures to ensure fairness in the determination of the Value for Money Test of the Contract, the Ministry is engaging Service Providers and other officials of GYEEDA in its discourse.
We wish to assure all Ghanaians that Government is taking legal and appropriate measures to ensure the final resolution of all issues of concern raised in the GYEEDA Report. In doing this, transparency and fairness will be its watch-word. For that matter, people cited in the Report will be given the chance to defend themselves as provided for in our statute or laws. At the end of the day, it is expected that GYEEDA will be restructured and be better positioned to fulfill its mandate of providing jobs and relevant skills to the Youth of the country.
In all these, the President has shown good faith to the people of Ghana. The clear directives with strict deadlines given to the sector Ministers to restructure and rid the Agency of any malfeasance is ample testimony of the fact that His Excellency is totally committed to fighting corruption in public institutions in Ghana.
Thank you
Signed: HON. ELVIS AFRIYIE-ANKRAH
MINISTER FOR YOUTH AND SPORTS