�Fishy� Rebirth Of Gyeeda Underway �How We Reported The Story On April 7-, 2014!

The New Crusading GUIDE on Monday 7th April, 2014, published a story on our front page under the heading �FISHY� REBIRTH OF GYEEDA UNDERWAY� with a call on the Presidency to act on an advert placed by the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) in the Daily Graphic. Records show that The Informer newspaper also did a �similar� story incidentally on the same day April 7, 2014! Three weeks down the line, President John Mahama has acted on the obvious faux pas as a result of recent media discussions and civil society agitation led by the Mass Action Committee (MAC). We reproduce below the original story. �FISHY� REBIRTH OF GYEEDA UNDERWAY A News Desk Report The Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) after a number of scandals and bad press had its operations suspended and the beneficiaries laid off but something very fishy seems to be happening at the Agency which needs to be investigated before worse scandals hit it in the future. Following the revelation of various acts in the operations of GYEEDA, a suspension of the various modules of the programme was announced. This suspension, we were told, was to allow for a restructuring of the programme. Among others, the suspension was to ensure �a complete review of all the GYEEDA modules and accompanying contracts to ensure value for money�, internal re-organization and capacity building at GYEEDA �to do what it should do best, monitor and evaluate these service providers� and to develop a proper legal framework (Act of Parliament) to back the program and agency. It was to ensure those and more that Mr. Kobby Acheampong was appointed as National Coordinator for the Agency. Surprisingly, despite the fact that the proposed reforms have not been completed and GYEEDA Bill not even tabled in Parliament, advertisements have been placed by GYEEDA for bids for the ICT Module of the programme. For Doubting Thomases, please kindly check page 43 of the Daily Graphic (Thursday, April 3, 2014). One wonders why the rush to restart only the ICT module of the programme when the announced internal reorganization and capacity building, proper legal framework and complete review of all the GYEEDA modules are yet to be completed and who are the ones behind the attempt to restart the ICT Module under the program when the task given by the President for the restructuring of the program is far from completion. Is President John Mahama aware of the advertisements on the ICT Module? Is Mr. Kobby Acheampong the one behind the ongoing attempt to restart the ICT Module? And what is the justification for commencing only the ICT module? How can the ICT module or any other module of GYEEDA be restarted when there is still no legal framework to back the workings of the program and agency? It will be interesting to unravel the puzzle also of why the Youth and Sports Minister, Elvis Afriyie � Ankrah who set up the GYEEDA probe and praised himself highly after the findings of the probe were made public and who is charged as sector Minister to oversee the restructuring, will authorize the advertising of bids for just one module of the programme and what his real interest is in the whole the GYEEDA issue. GYEEDA therefore has questions to answer on this advertisement for bids especially as the GYEEDA bill has not been passed to give it legal backing for some of these actions. It is our hope that the questions raised here will receive the proper attention from the Presidency to forestall future embarrassment as the actions of GYEEDA whether acceptable or not will always hang around the neck of the President who has taken a personal interest and rightly so, in the affairs of the Agency.