Member of Parliament for Okaikoi South and Communications Director of the NPP, Nana Akomea, has said the government's inability to provide a comprehensive survey on the unemployment rate is because Ghana's Statistical Service (GSS) is under resourced. According to him, the Statistical Service lacks the logistics and finances to conduct a survey on the unemployment rate. The Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, E.T. Mensah, who appeared in parliament Thursday, June 23, to respond to questions on unemployment rate in country revealed that, his ministry had no reliable data. Blaming the problem on logistical constraints of the Statistical Service, E.T. Mensah said, after the 2005/2006 Ghana Living Standard Survey conducted by the GSS, which indicated that about 2.653 million Ghanaians were unemployed, no survey has been done. However, Policy think tank IMANI Ghana blamed the Ghana Statistical Service for lack of data on the unemployment rate. They also questioned the veracity of data rolled out by the Statistical Service. Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Friday, Nana Akomea opined that the Employment and Social Welfare Minister could not be blamed for the lack of date on unemployment rate in the country. The Okaikoi South MP who jumped to the defense of his colleague parliamentarian said, the problem of the Statistical Service is something all past governments are well aware of. He said it is an indictment on all of them. Nana Akomea observed that the allusion by the Employment and Social Welfare Minister flaws the assertion by Deputy Minister of Information, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa that the Mills administration has created about 1.6 million jobs. He said the Statistical Service is only limited to their seven-year Ghana Living Standards Survey and the population census conducted every ten years before data on the unemployment rate could be determined. Nana Akomea called on the government to address the issue in a holistically devoid of politics and provide the necessary resources to the Statistical Service. Story by: Adwoa Gyasiwaa/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana