<<Print>>

Deputy Communications Director of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Samuel Awuku has opined that it is unfair to indict just three companies and a few individuals in the report by the Ministerial Committee set up to investigate the activities of suspected fraud at the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development (GYEEDA). He is of the view that there are top ranking officials in various ministries involved because individuals cannot approve a colossal amount of over �GH�200 million� without any connivance with or involvement of top level management members. The committee said Zoomlion and other service providers under GYEEDA were engaged in gross financial malfeasance and advised government to cancel all contracts with them. The report also indicted six top GYEEDA officials. However, Awuku told Kwami Sefa Kayi during discussions on PeaceFM "Kokrokoo" Morning Show: �I don�t think it is fair that the officials mentioned should be the only culprits involved. Those individuals cited in the report do not have the capacity to approve these millions of cedis�if you cite only the companies involved, I have a problem�how about the ministers and deputy ministers who approved? The money is approved at the highest level and the money we are talking about is huge; over 200 million Ghana Cedis. There had to be an active and top ranking officials conniving to make such deals go through. The senior men are there!� Samuel Awuku also asked government to publish the full report which was submitted to him a few days ago. He said the more it delays, the more suspicions will be foiled. Even though he has still not seen a copy of the report, according to him, snippets of what he has read indicate that there were no �checks and balances� in the various transactions that took place. �...invoices of companies that work for government goes through a process. The invoice does not go to an individual. Are we saying that if 1000 people were assigned to be trained and an invoice of 3000 trained people were tendered, the long chain of government set up couldn�t detect anywhere that the numbers doesn�t tally? If that is the case, then it is a serious matter and negligence at the highest level. If the authorities trained 2000 people and they raised an invoice of 4000 and it couldn�t be detected then the country is seriously bleeding and bleeding to death. The money raised must commensurate with the work done,� he surmised.