DAILY GUIDE can authoritatively confirm that thousands of youth working with the National Youth Employment Programme have all been sacked. The decision was taken on May 3, 2010, in a letter written and signed by the district coordinators of the National Youth Employment Programme and issued to the various divisional and district commanders of the various police stations, with copies to the national and regional coordinators, including the project accountant. According to the letter, a copy of which is in possession of this paper, the appointment of the youth under the scheme had expired, insinuating that government can no longer pay for their salaries. Information gathered indicated that the youth employed under the scheme are expected to hand over their uniforms and other tools to their district and divisional commanders, before they leave. However, sources said the police administration was not in the position to enforce the order, simply because the police say they had no hand in the appointment under the NYEP. This comes barely a month after sixteen supporting staff of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) headquarters, were relocated to other sub metros within the Accra Metropolis under bizarre circumstances. While the affected staff suspected that it was an attempt by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government to subtly dismiss them from the service, Abuga Pele, National Coordinator of the NYEP, denied and said, “It forms part of a restructuring exercise currently underway.” He said “those districts lack quality human resources to make the scheme effective and we want to distribute them to the various districts and sub-metros to get the scheme going.” Asked whether the affected staff are not victims of the NDC government’s mantra of ‘proceed on leave’, Mr Pele said “that is very wrong. We are only working to make the scheme effective and as I earlier on explained to you, there are a lot of staff at the headquarters doing nothing.” He added, “I do not know the affected staff as perceived by opposition sympathizers, and what we are doing is a restructuring exercise and not the termination of appointments.” Some of the agitated youth from three northern regions who spoke with the paper, indicated that their letters had been read to them by the district commanders, and their uniforms handed over to their heads. Meanwhile, some of the dismissed staff of the NYEP in an interview questioned the rationale behind government’s decision to lay them off, when that same government promised them a ‘Better Ghana’ and the creation of more jobs months ago. “Maybe this is the ‘Better Ghana’ President Mills promised us; by dismissing us to go and stay at home empty-handed, with some of us not paid for the past four months,” they added. Some of the youth also alleged that even though they have been asked to be laid off, their four months salaries have still not been paid by the government. Information available to the paper also indicates that some youth are being recruited by the NDC to fill in the vacancies created by the workers of the programme. The Regional Coordinator of the National Youth Employment Programme, Solomon Nii Afutu Quartey, who confirmed the dismissal, indicated that their term ended in March 31, 2010. He said government is developing a programme to cater for the sacked personnel. “Government has developed an exit plan for all the models and those who are not absorbed in any of the models due to their educational background would be trained in the vocational model,” he concluded. Source: Daily Guide