The Member of Parliament (MP) for Sekondi, Papa Owusu Ankomah is insisting that the Youth Employment Bill, which is at the consideration stage in Parliament, should be rejected and returned to the committee level. This he said was due to the “porous nature” of the bill.
He argued that returning the bill to the committee level will enable them “do better work and present it to this House.” Parliament on Wednesday postponed deliberations on the bill due to the low turnout of Law makers.
The proposed law seeks to give legal backing to the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA), which has over the years been hit by a wave of financial scandals and allegations of misuse public funds. Minority MPs had previously raised strong objections to the speed with which the government intends to have the bill passed into law without first resolving the numerous scandals that have crippled the programme.
Arguing his point in Parliament on Thursday, Papa Owusu Ankomah said: “It is important at this stage for us to look at the explanatory memorandum and then understand the rationale behind the bill…What I can say is that the government draft has not helped this House.” “I’m urging this House to reject the report of the committee on youth and employment that this bill goes through a second review,” Owusu Ankomah added.
For his part, the Minister of Road and Highways, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini bemoaned the fierce opposition that the bill has received. He said future generations will not forgive the Minority MPs if they stayed away from passing the bill into law saying, “imposing ourselves a restriction to consider the bill until past issues are considered,” was not in the interest of the country.
“We are being invited to consider putting in place a legal framework for the operation of a programme or a policy, then we say that we aren’t going to pass the law, that we aren’t even prepared to even consider the legal framework that even the arguments contained in the policy should not be considered until issues concerning the past operations of the programme are considered.”
Source: Maame Yaa Titi/agooeast.com
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