Information reaching the New Statesman indicates that President John Dramani Mahama and his National Democratic Congress government are not keen on retrieving the GH�50 million owed the nation by the president�s close associate, going contrary to the recommendations made by the GYEEDA report that uncovered the reckless dissipation of over GHC1billion under the guise of youth employment creation.
This development is confirmed by the revelation by sources at the Attorney-General�s Department that the A-G cannot cancel the contracts and retrieve the over GH�200 owed the state by companies that served as Service Providers for the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency.
The reason for the A-G�s department declining the invitation to cancel the contracts and retrieve the GH�50 million is that the A-G�s Department did not sign those contracts and can only provide legal advice in that regard.
Already, it is a well-known fact, as cited in the GYEEDA report, that Service Providers for GYEEDA projects were heavily skewed in favour of companies owned by Mr Agambire, Mr Agyapong and Mr Agongo.
�This tendered to stifle innovations and new ideas from other potentially capable SPs. There was evidence of individuals owning in excess of eight modules at any single time, with aggregate contract values in excess of one hundred and fifty million Ghana cedis (GHS150, 000,000.00),� the GYEEDA report noted.
It is recalled the Ministerial Committee recommended the outright cancelation of six contracts after it concluded in its value-for-money analysis that the nation loses millions of cedis every month through those contracts.
They include GYEEDA�s contracts with Zoomlion Ghana Limited, Better Ghana Management Services Limited and the Youth Enterprise and Skills Development Centres. The rest are GYEEDA�s contracts with Goodwill Consulting, the Youth in Road Maintenance and the Youth in Zongo Development run by the Zeera Group of companies.
The report cited conflict of interest as well as lack of value for money as some of the reasons for recommending the cancellation of the contracts.
The GYEEDA report also noted how private companies are able to �request� Government to apportion state resources in a particular manner for their benefit.
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