NPP member Ernest Adade has challenged the reported profit and excess funds returned to government by the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), questioning whether the figures reflect the agency’s effectiveness in tackling unemployment.
Adade said the performance of an institution established primarily to create jobs should not be assessed simply by the amount of money it saves or returns to the state, particularly when many Ghanaians continue to struggle to find employment.
Speaking during a panel discussion on GTV, he said the reported surplus by the YEA was difficult to reconcile with the employment challenges facing the country.
“It’s quite confusing,” he said.
He questioned how the agency’s reported profit had been calculated and whether the assessment by the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) properly captured the YEA’s core mandate.
“An agency like YEA said they have made profit, and I don’t know how SIGA calculated that,” he said.
According to Adade, the debate should focus less on whether the agency generated a financial surplus and more on whether public resources allocated to it were translated into meaningful employment opportunities for Ghanaians.
He drew comparisons with the way the financial performance of some state-owned enterprises, including the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), is interpreted, arguing that a declaration of profitability does not necessarily provide a complete picture of an institution’s performance.
Adade said the YEA’s reported surplus raised broader questions about the relationship between public spending and outcomes, particularly against the backdrop of concerns over poverty and unemployment.
He argued that retaining or returning unspent funds could be viewed differently when the agency’s target beneficiaries were still facing significant economic hardship.
“If the poverty rate is going high, unemployment is rising and the agency that is supposed to create the employment says the money you gave us, we have profit, we have excess and we’ve given it back to government, and the people are hungry and the people said we don’t have jobs,” he said.
He therefore called for greater scrutiny of the YEA’s financial figures and a clearer assessment of how its resources are being deployed to achieve its employment mandate.
Adade’s comments have renewed debate over how the performance of public agencies should be measured, particularly institutions whose primary objective is social and economic impact rather than profit generation.
