Dealing With Unemployment: Terminate All Contracts Of Retirees – Okudzeto Ablakwa Tells Akufo-Addo

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu in the Volta region, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has charged President Akufo-Addo to immediately terminate the contracts of all retirees to pave the way for qualified youth to get employed in those positions.

According to the statement by the outspoken lawmaker, he has counted hundreds of these retirees who have been engaged on multiple post-retirement contracts by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government when they should be home enjoying their pensions instead of denying many qualified young Ghanaians employment opportunities.

A country facing record high unemployment as captured by the 2021 Population and Housing Census of 13.4% and 32.8% for those aged 15-24, further aggravated by the current debilitating economic crisis, should not be keeping so many retirees on contract in the public service”.

His full statement is below:

A country facing record high unemployment as captured by the 2021 Population and Housing Census of 13.4% and 32.8% for those aged 15-24, further aggravated by the current debilitating economic crisis, should not be keeping so many retirees on contract in the public service.

So far, I have counted hundreds of these retirees who have been engaged on multiple post-retirement contracts by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government when they should be home enjoying their pensions instead of denying many qualified young Ghanaians employment opportunities.

There are as many as 63 retirees on contract within the Civil and Local Government Services today and even more than this number under other public sector categories. Apart from serving as a blockade to prospective young Ghanaians with public sector ambitions, the phenomenon is stifling career progression and lowering morale in Ghana’s public sector. Equally troubling — some of those contracts we are reviewing are palpably unconstitutional.

President Akufo-Addo must immediately terminate all these contracts, ensure he thanks our retirees for their dedicated service and endeavour to honour them with a befitting send-off and urgently fill the vacancies to be created through a transparent, credible and meritorious recruitment process for our suffering youth — as we demand that this time he eschews his reckless penchant for Family/Friends/Akonta shenanigans.