GYEEDA Scandal: Court Decides Fate of Abuga Pele, Assibit Today

 

Officials indicted in the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) scandal, Abuga Pele and Philip Assibit, will know their fate today, Friday, February 23, 2018 as an Accra High Court delivers judgment.

Pele, a former national Coordinator of GYEEDA and Assibit, a former CEO have been charged with defrauding by false pretense and dishonestly causing financial loss. They are alleged to have connived to defraud the State of Gh¢4.1 million.

They have pleaded not guilty. Should the court find the accused persons guilty they face a minimum of 10 years in jail.

Pele is alleged to have entered into a contract with the second accused person, Assibit, a representative of Goodwill International Ghana (GIG), to engage in activities which have not inured to the benefit of the state.

Assibit is facing five counts of dishonestly causing loss to public property, two counts of abetment of crime and six counts of defrauding by false pretence.

According to the prosecution, Pele and Assibit signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which gave GIG the mandate to render services without recourse to the Minister of Employment or the Attorney-General.

Assibit was said to have given false representation that he had secured a $65-million loan facility from the World Bank for the implementation of the Youth Enterprise Development Programme (YEDP) and had, in the process, employed 250 youth to support the implementation of the YEDP, as well as developed and facilitated the launch of an effectual exit programme for all NYEP modules.

Background

The facts of the case, as presented by Mrs Keelson, were that in 2009, Pele, on assumption of office as the National Co-ordinator of the NYEP, entered into a contract with Assibit.

Under the terms of the agreement, the NYEP was described as the ‘host’, while the GIG was tagged as the ‘strategic partner’.

According to the prosecution, the parties agreed to combine their labour, properties and skills for the purpose of engaging in resource mobilisation, investor sourcing, management consulting, capacity building, career development, training services, among other jobs.

Per the agreement, the GIG was responsible for resource mobilisation and undertook to provide preliminary funds for the development of the programme, while the parties agreed to equally share the profits that would accrue out of the agreement.

“Meanwhile, there is nothing on record in terms of business proposals or documents forming the basis of engaging the GIG as a strategic partner,” the prosecution stated.

Assibit, between May 2011 and May 2012, “made a number of payment claims for consultancy services he claimed to have rendered to the NYEP, ranging from the provision of exit plan and strategy for all NYEP modules, established a Youth Enterprise Development Project which he claimed to have used in securing approval for a World Bank facility of $65 million for the NYEP and had recruited and trained 250 youth to support the implementation of what he referred to as the World Bank-funded Youth Enterprise Development Programme (YEDP),” it said.

Source: Starrfmonline