The Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment has despatched a team of external auditors to all districts in the country to audit the accounts of employment co-ordinators under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP). The move follows reported cases of financial impropriety involving some district employment co-ordinators of the NYEP who have, among other things, been cited for extorting money from some youth to offer them jobs. The sector minister, Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface, who spoke to the Daily Graphic on Tuesday, indicated that the purpose of auditing the officials was, among other things, intended to ensure that the officials conducted themselves in a manner that would not sabotage the successful implementation of the NYEP. An Accra-based private newspaper in its July 4, 2007 issue published a report to the effect that three officials of the NYEP at Akyem Oda in the Birim South District in the Eastern Region had loaded the pay voucher of the Community Teaching Assistants Model with ghost names and as a result were drawing salaries based on those names. It said 20 of the alleged fraudulent names had been on the voucher since November last year and the suspects had used these names to fraudulently withdraw ¢14 million (GH ¢1,400) every month till May this year. The minister said the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service were currently investigating the matter and "if their reports confirm those allegations, the suspects will be made to face the full rigours of the law". "No official under this programme will be spared if allegations such as this or any other is made and proven against him because the future of the youth cannot be toyed with," he added. He hinted that he was yet to visit the area to find out for himself the extent to which those allegations were true. In a related development, the Daily Graphic said the Ahanta West District Employment Co-ordinator, Mr Athansivs Ada Yankey, was summarily given the sack for allegedly extorting money and recruiting some youth into the programme without the prior knowledge of the minister, as well as the Deputy National Co-ordinator responsible for the Central and Western regions, Mr Francis Avura. The Akuapem South District Employment Co-ordinator, Mr Kwabena Erskine, has also alleged that the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Nyarko Adu, was interfering with the programme by recruiting and forcing some youth on the NYEP without recourse to the laid-down procedures. The Deputy National Co-ordinator in charge of the Eastern and Volta regions, Mr Patrice Caesar-Sowah, in an interview, observed that it was premature to conclude on the basis of newspaper reports but urged all to wait till the police report was made public. He, however, said if the report implicated the officials, they would not be spared and that the government was committed to ensuring that the youth of the country were given jobs. “The North Tongu District Employment Co-ordinator was dismissed for engaging in acts that undermined the success of the programme,” he disclosed. Mr Caesar-Sowah added that more than 13,000 youth were currently engaged under the Community Protection Unit (CPU) model of the NYEP in his zone and that 526 more youth were to undergo training in Koforidua to join the CPU. Source: Daily Graphic