Hungry unemployed youth cannot wait for NPP for jobs – Employment Minister

Employment Minister Haruna Iddrisu says Ghana’s hungry unemployed youth cannot wait for the New Patriotic Party to come into government before their dream jobs would be provided.

Daring the NPP to be obstinate in the face of rising youth unemployment, the Minister said the youth are yearning for income and skills and they need them now.

He was reacting to the calls by the Minority to withdraw the Youth Employment Bill which is currently before Parliament and which would likely be passed by next week.

The Bill, among other things would structure Ghana’s Youth Employment policy which was riddled with lots of corruption in the past.

The Minority said the Bill in its current state still lends itself to corruption.

MP for Atwima Mponua, Isaac Asiamah said at a time when the country is suffocating under a GYEEDA induced corruption, the country cannot be forced to pass a new law on Youth employment.

He said the government must first pass the test for corruption by collecting the 1.5billion cedis said to have been lost to the state as a result of the dubious GYEEDA contracts and modules.

He called on the Employment Minister to quickly withdraw the bill and solve all challenges found to have riddled the GYEEDA policy.

But the Minister in a rebuttal said the government is still on course to pursuing all the recommendations made by the Committee that investigated the rot in the GYEEDA scandal.

He admitted there was some flagrant violation of procurement laws and other legal frameworks in the execution of the GYEEDA programme but was convinced the current Youth Employment Bill if passed into law would go a long way to provide the necessary legal backing for the policy.

He also assured of government’s commitment to collect monies wrongfully paid to some persons and to prosecute people deemed to have violated the country’s laws.

But Mr Asiamah appears not to be impressed with Iddrisu’s assurances.

He told Joy News, the country needs no laws in the execution of the policies to provide employment for the youth.

He said the Youth employment policy instituted by the NPP was without corruption until the NDC came on board with a new policy to create, loot and share.

He added in this dubious agenda, functionaries of the NDC breached many financial laws in their bid to loot and share.

So the answer to the problem is not to pass new laws but to show commitment in fighting corruption, he challenged.

-Nathan Gadugah