The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) has justified the dismissal of some of its personnel, and denied claims that those affected were affiliated to the National Democratic Congress.
Public Relations Officer of YEA, Awal Mohammed, they were dismissed purely on the basis that they did not have appointment letters, and not because of political vendetta as is being claimed by some critics.
He told Onua FM Wednesday that upon a headcount; some anomalies were discovered, saying “Over 2700 beneficiaries according to our findings were without appointment letters, suggesting that they were not properly appointed.
“Since they cannot justify that themselves, we have to apply the law,” he explained
Again, he said some of the YEA beneficiaries were above the required age of 35 years, noting “if the law says the youth age is between 18 to 35, then what are you doing as a beneficiary who is above the 35-year mark”
Mr Mohammed also said about 4000 beneficiaries nationwide vacated post by themselves.
He added that some institutions where some of the beneficiaries worked, wrote to inform YEA management that the beneficiaries have stopped working, based on which their names were removed from their database.
He thus questioned why some critics have been ascribing political motive to the dismissal of those beneficiaries.
“Those who have been engaged during the time of the past government are they also not Ghanaians, so if all these evidences are out there, why are people saying we are being vindictive” he wondered.
Meanwhile, Mr Mohammed said new modules, including graduate internship and community protection personnel will soon be rolled out.
With the Community Protection Personnel module, which will be under the Ghana Police Service, Mr. Mohammed said the IGP has agreed to award beneficiaries with certificate after two years.
He said if after the two years there is recruitment ongoing, those people could be absorbed into the Police Service after training.
For the Graduate Internship beneficiaries, he said they would be attached to government institutions, especially those who have net freeze on employment in anticipation that after two years, if the institutions get clearance from to recruit, they would be employed.
“What is important for us is the exit plan, if the person is there for two years and after that cannot get any work to do, then what is the essence of engaging him at the first place? They will only come to join the unemployed youth, so that is why we are introducing that”
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