Minority Members of Parliament (MPs) on Wednesday forced the postponement of a potentially tumultuous debate on the controversial Youth Employment Bill, citing visibly low turnout in Parliament as a key reason.
The proposed law seeks to give legal backing for the crisis-ridden Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA), which has seen a wave of financial scandals and allegations of misuse of public funds.
Minority MPs had previously raised strong objections to the speed with which the government intends to have Parliament pass the bill into law without first resolving the numerous scandals that have crippled the programme, which presently has no legislative backing.
Shortly before presiding Speaker, Ebo Barton Oduro, adjourned debate on the bill after protests by the Minority, the Minister for Employment and Labor Relations, Haruna Iddrissu, moved the motion for the second reading of the proposed legislation.
According to him, one of the major issues of concern, which the bill seeks to address, is the source of funding for youth employment.
“We need to have a dedicated funding project to support youth employment.
Indeed, we believe in this project because we need to assure young people of an improvement in their livelihood by assuring them of some decent employment. It is to this end that government has decided to restructure GYEEDA and get it as a young pensioning structure which will coordinate the activities of young people’s employment in the country.”
Mr. Iddrissu assured the House that “no young person working under GYEEDA will earn less than the minimum wage.”
He therefore urged members of the law-making House to support the intervention that “will assure and provide young people an opportunity to decent work and some decent income and for them to make meaningful contribution to improving the quality of lives of themselves and making a contribution to national development.”
This is not the first time the GYEEDA bill has faced stiff opposition from Minority in Parliament.
Minority MPs during a discussion on the Bill early this month, accused the Majority of smuggling into Parliament the GYEEDA bill.
