Investigate NSS U.S.$300,000 Payment For Workshops In The U.S. Organised For It By MIT

What a hard-of-hearing lot some of Ghana's politicians are. Apparently, Mr. Mustapha Ussif, the executive director of the National Service Secretariat (NSS), has been trying to justify a U.S.$300,000 payment made by the NSS to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), for a number of workshops in the U.S., to be organised for it by the MIT between 2017-2019.

If media reports of his response to criticism of the said payment for the MIT U.S. workshops by Hon. Ras Mubarak are true, then Mustapha Ussif ought to be investigated by the Organised Economic Crime Office (EOCO). Immediately. In fairness, however, it ought to be pointed out that when he had an opportunity to serve his country during the Mahama era, Hon. Ras Mubarak himself wasn't a paragon of virtue when it came to expenditure covering useless undertakings at taxpayers' expense. Trips abroad on official duties are a case in point.

Yet still, surely, there is no dearth of experts who can conduct research and offer advice to the government on how to create jobs for unemployed young people, in this country, is there? As we speak, are there not many tertiary institutions and private-sector consultancies in Ghana, which the NSS can approach for ideas on developing new empowerment "modules" for service personnel? Ebeeii.

There are many questions that need answering by this genius. For example, was the money paid directly to the MIT by the NSS - or did a 'fixer' arrange it for a consultancy fee? One hopes not. And can he furnish the nation with a list of all those who thus far have attended the MIT workshops in the U.S., and how much in the way of stipends they were each paid for the round trip to the U.S.and back?

The question is: If it was his own money, is this how this genius would have chosen to spend U.S.$300,000? As a wag I know said to me after hearing this outrage:"Kofi, this is a sophisticated example of create, loot and share, designed to enhance the CVs of some of today's well-connected ruling party supporters at hapless taxpayers' expense!" Indeed.

The real scandal in all this, is that there are thousands of hard-up micro-entrepreneurs across Ghana, who want financial assistance - which they will gladly repay after begining production - to obtain certification from the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), and the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), to enable them manufacture and sell their products.

That U.S.$300,000 could have made a huge difference for some of those financially challenged micro-entrepreneurs - who can literally create tens of thousands of jobs once they go into production with the seal of approval of the GSA and the FDA. Pity.

Even an old fool and ignoranus such as myself, and my partners, are about to replicate the UK's 'The Big Issue' street news magazine's business model in Ghana, by publishing 'The Big Issue Ghana' to empower unemployed, homeless and street people to bootstrap their way out of poverty, by becoming self-employed micro-entrepreneurs selling print versions of 'The Big Issue Ghana' at 100 percent mark ups. Haaba.

Will even that simple independent citizen-media alternative to Ghana' mostly-compronised mainstream media, idea, not help cut down some of the numbers of teeming unemployed young people in Ghana, I ask? Hmmm, Oman Ghana - eyeasem o: asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa. This NSS move cannot be justified under any circumstances - and no one in government should seek to justify it.

The question is: To serve as an example to other government appointees, who might be tempted to dream up similar create-loot-and-share schemes, should this genius not be sacked from his National Service Secretariat position, and charged with dissipating public funds? Hmmm, Oman Ghana, eyeasem o: asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa.

There is definitely more to this NSS U.S.$300,000 payment for workshops in the U.S. organised for it by the MIT, than meets the eye. It must be thoroughly investigated by the authorities. Asap.

Finally, for the benefit of our readers, we have culled the story sourced from Citifmonline and posted on Ghanaweb.com, which carries Mustpha Ussif's mealy-mouthed excuses to justify his unjustifiable MIT workshops-in-the-U.S. expenditure, below.

Please read on:

"General News of Friday, 2 March 2018

Source: citifmonline.com

NSS boss justifies $300,000 expenditure for MIT programme

Executive Director of NSS, Mustapha Ussif

The Executive Director of the National Service Secretariat (NSS), Mustapha Ussif, has rubbished concerns from the MP for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak, that the secretariat is wasting money by spending $300,000 on a training programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Ussif further clarified that the training programme engaged 17 individuals from “all youth agencies” as well as persons from academia and corporate Ghana.

The programme involves a series of workshop sessions geared towards exploring solutions towards reducing youth unemployment.

In Parliament on Thursday, Ras Mubarak raised issues with the amount spent on the programme which translates to about GHc 1.3 million.

Speaking on Eyewitness News later on, he said, “as far as I am concerned, it is completely an outrage to have spent over 1.6 million for 13 officials to travel to the USA for a training programme at a time where the National service Secretariat cant even meet its obligations as far as paying the allowance of service personnel are concerned.”

The MP also said there was some policy incoherence because Ghana has “other agencies of government whose business it is to build the capacity of youth and provide them with training.”

Workshops are to tackle unemployment

Mr. Ussif, however, defended the move to resort to MIT saying the government was responding to Ghana's unemployment problem and it believed the series of workshop's at MIT presented a solution.

“All this was put together for us to have a two-year intensive workshop to come out with a module that will be feasible for sponsorship from any donor funding… all these efforts are to reduce the youth unemployment in this country,” he explained.

Mr. Ussif maintained further that MIT has “the potential of helping us with the research and analysis to be able to come out with a feasible module.”

He added that these five-day workshops, which sees the 17 persons fly to the US sporadically, are to continue until 2019."

End of culled story sourced from Citifmonline and posted on Ghanaweb.com.