Govt won’t terminate appointments - of NYEP beneficiaries (25/6/09)

Story; Abdul Aziz and Jennifer Dornoo
Beneficiaries of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) have been assured that the government has no plans to terminate their employment contracts.
Instead the NYEP is to recruit an additional 100,000 youth onto the programme between July 2009 and January 2010.
Since its inception in 2006, the programme has had a total of 332,500 youth registered.
Mr Abuga Pele, the National Co-ordinator of the NYEP, who gave the assurance at a press conference in Accra last Tuesday, therefore, urged those attacking offices and officers of the programme to put a stop to it.
He said there had been a few reported cases of attacks on NYEP offices with particular reference to the Tamale Offices, where the liaison officer of the Northern Region had been asked to investigate.
He pointed out that some publications in the media were suggesting that the government was planning to terminate employment contracts of NYEP staff including District Employment Co-ordinators.
He reiterated the government’s commitment to transforming the NYEP into a permanent, better-funded employment agency, adding that there were plans to implement appropriate exit plans for the career progression and professional development of programme beneficiaries.
Mr Pele acknowledged certain irregularities in the programme such as the existence of ghost names and assured Ghanaians that a head count would be done to check such irregularities.
He said since the announcement of the head count exercise, the current population of youth under the programme had reduced, adding that the number would reduce further when the exercise was undertaken.
He said the exercise would ensure that people who were no longer working under the NYEP but were still taking allowances would be dealt with, while others who had finished serving their contracts but were still at post would exit to enable other youth in the country to benefit from the programme.
Mr Pele said a memo had been prepared suggesting to the government a policy directive to instruct all public organisations to absorb five per cent of beneficiaries attached to their outfits during recruitment or training exercises, as well as to create the appropriate structures for beneficiaries to exit into mainstream employment.
He appealed to all Ghanaians to cooperate with the government in its efforts to streamline the programme and make it more sustainable for the benefit of the youth in the country.