Eric Adjei, CEO of the National Entrepreneurship & Innovation Programme (NEIP) has revealed that the staff of the NEIP never paid tax to the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government.
According to Eric Adjei, people who were issued appointments were being paid allowances and not salaries and received 7000 cedis as an allowance but never paid tax to the government.
In a memo dated Friday, February 21, management of the programme stated, “Management has been instructed to adhere strictly to due process in regularising staff employment to prevent further legal complications.”
“Additionally, all staff who are in possession of property belonging to NEIP are required to hand them over to the HR Officer by close of work on Tuesday, February 25, 2025.”
“Failure to do so will be considered as deliberate stealing of such items,” the statement read.
Eric Adjei has also revealed that he has not sacked anyone at the NEIP.
Speaking in an interview, Eric Adjei stated, “Yes, I have said they should go home for temporal it is not a dismissal, did you read the document, I have not sacked anyone. The Chief of Staff brought a directive, and I have been given an office to manage I am also a rational human being so when you go and sit at the office and things are not going well you can sit and wait for President Mahama to come and correct for it for you”.
“It was an internal Memo, and they circulated it saying I have sacked them, so if they have sacked you and you believe why don’t you go home? They posted it on social media looking for results so they will get the results there”, he added.
Eric Adjei further explained his decision to suspend all NEIP staff saying, “If you come to my office some people were employed in 2017, and some were employed in 2018, 2019 to 2023 these are people appointed letters were issued to and they were told if management changes and they are to be sacked they will be paid three months salary”.
Indirectly the money that is supposed to run the activities of NEIP some of that money is used to pay the people, they are not either under the Public Service Commission or civil service, when I saw this I knew it was wrong, the past week I have followed up at the ministry to know the position of my workers were they belong to, we are preparing a budget and I have to factor all these issues”, he added.
Eric Adjei narrated, “When I checked the records from the finance department the people who were issued appointments when they were being paid, were captured as allowance. Who can be taken allowance and be in government work for six to seven years?
You know the criminality in this, because they are paid in the form of allowance they don’t pay taxes to the government, someone has worked for 7 years being paid 7000 cedis he has not paid tax to the government before. Someone has worked for 5 years the CEO has not paid SSNIT for the person, you know the labour laws.
And you are telling me that with the mess I have seen I should continue with the mess, then one day when someone comes I will be arrested and taken to court. So if I say go home for us to do things well and they have gone to social media, have they gotten the results?”, he added.
The CEO of NEIP revealed that he had not come to punish the staff but only for the right things to be done and they are all over claiming he had sacked them so he can employ NDC people.
He added, “The criminality the employee committed and the employer also, because you have been employed for six years you were not paying tax, it is a criminal offence. Cheques were being issued to employers for them to go and withdraw through that they don’t pay tax, they escape all the avenues, and ask those who have worked there for five to six years which of them have a payslip.
I have not come to punish anyone I just came for the right things to be done. Instead of doing the right things they are out there claiming I have sacked their people, and I am looking for a way to employ NDC people even granted if I take the NDC people are they not Ghanaians?”, Eric Adjei stated.
Watch the video below:
NEIP CEO, Eric Adjei clarifies the employee suspension while he throws more light on the issue. Take a listen. pic.twitter.com/DuUhTUV6BW
— KOJO DYNAMIC 𓃵 (@AnnanPerry) February 23, 2025
