Nana Akomea Fingered In �Criminal� Activity At NYEP

A Deputy Minister of Information and Media Relations believes a stuanch critic of the corruption-ridden GYEEDA program does not have the moral authority to criticize because he is not without dirty hands. Murtala Mohammed is accusing Nana Akomea, a former minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment under the Kufuor regime, of criminality after sending public service teachers to teach in some private schools during his time as a supervising authority at the National Youth employment Program (NYEP). The NYEP which has been renamed Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) has been brought to its knees following massive corruption forcing government to cancel contracts of service providers. Speaking on Multi TV�s PM Express last Wednesday, Murtala Mohammed revealed �I have an NYEP appointment letter signed by Nana Akomea sending NYEP beneficiaries to teach in a private school. That is not only illegal it is criminal�. �You don�t pay a teacher who teaches in a private school by the state�, he argued. Nana Akomea was the sector minister in charge of supervision of the program between 2007 and January 2009. He has been fiercely critically of how the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has run a promising youth employment program into a ditch. �I want them to dare� Murtala Mohammed said intent on exposing wrongdoing done under NYEP by the New Patriotic Party (NPP). In a reaction, Nana Akomea, speaking to myjoyonline.com, explained the purpose of sending NYEP beneficiaries to teach in private schools was to give them experience and to expose them to work. He argued that just as a private company like Zoomlion could use the beneficiaries to work for their companies, there is nothing wrong with sending them to offer service in private schools. He said the NYEP teachers formed a "very very small" part of the program and was done "under exceptional circumstances." He described the beneficiaries as "interns" who after gaining some two to three months experience could be more useful to teach in other places. "The whole thing was to give jobs to young people", he noted and pointed out that fake bank accounts that certain GYEEDA officials opened to ostensibly rob the state was what should engage Murtala Mohammed's attention. He accused the Deputy Minister of diverting the minds of Ghanaians from the "create, loot and share" that characterised the conduct of GYEEDA officials and some politicians resulting in the corruption at the once-promising youth employment program.