News:
September 3, 2013
Member of Parliament for Nabdam, Boniface Gambila has blamed former President John Atta Mills and President John Dramani Mahama for the rot uncovered at the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA).
He said both leaders must be held responsible for sitting idle and allowing public officials appointed to this state agency to engage in corrupt deals that have robbed the country of huge sums of monies which could have been used to further develop the country.
Government is to recover over GH¢200 million, constituting unlawful payments, from service providers with the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA).
It is to refund an amount of GH¢2.4 million to the state. The company is also to refund over US$2 million it took from GYEEDA but did not render any service.
The Better Ghana Management Service, a subsidiary of Zoomlion Company Limited, is also to refund money to the state, according to the report.
The company was paid GH¢58.1 million to train GYEEDA beneficiaries, a training described as unnecessary by the committee training but it failed to provide the service. It also overcharged the state by about GH¢9 million for garbage collection tricycles it purported to have supplied GYEEDA beneficiaries.
Better Ghana Management Service is also expected to refund GH¢67.1 million to government.
The worst culprit, according to the report, is Zoomlion Ghana Limited. The company is said to have overcharged the state for tricycle and motorbike to the tune of GH¢74.2 million.
The report says; “the management fee schedule provided by Zoomlion, suggests a serious misuse of the public purse and was based on erroneous mathematics”.
Speaking on Adom FM’s Burning Issues programme on Monday, Hon. Boniface Gambila who is also the Deputy Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Committee on Youth and Sports asserted that the huge monies embezzled were used to fuel the political campaigns of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) party in the run up to the general elections.
‘’You can see that most of the huge monies withdrawn and over expended in the deal was carried out in the last quarter of 2012 during the elections, and so the responsibility lies with former President Mills and current President John Mahama, every leader knows the authority level of any officials he/she appoints, the monies are too big. He said’’.
Kwadwo Anim/Ghanamps.gov.gh