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President John Dramani Mahama has announced that the government will not renew the long-standing sanitation contract between the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and Zoomlion Ghana Limited. This decision follows a petition from investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni, which detailed corruption and inefficiencies in the agreement.
In a letter dated June 11 and signed by Presidential Secretary Dr. Callistus Mahama, the presidency confirmed the contract’s expiration and outlined new steps to improve transparency and fairness in sanitation service delivery.
Key highlights of the president’s response:
1. Contract expired and will not be renewed: The 19-year-old contract with Zoomlion has officially ended.
2. Audit of all payments: All payments made to Zoomlion after the contract’s expiration will be audited. Unauthorised payments will be recovered.
3. Competitive procurement going forward: Future sanitation contracts will be awarded through regional or district-based bidding rather than a single national contract. This is expected to reduce costs and encourage better service delivery.
4. Increased pay for sweepers: The government plans to raise sweepers’ salaries using the savings from ending the Zoomlion contract.
5. Fumigation contract review: Underperforming fumigation contracts will be reviewed and possibly terminated based on advice from the Attorney-General.
The move ends Zoomlion’s near-monopoly on sanitation services in Ghana. Under the now-expired contract, the company retained GHS600 out of GHS850 per sweeper and paid only GHS250 monthly to workers. Zoomlion had proposed increasing its take to GHS888 per GHS1,308 allocation, leaving sweepers with GHS420, this proposal will no longer be considered.
Discrepancies in the reported number of sweepers also raised concerns. While Zoomlion claimed to employ 45,000 sweepers, a YEA headcount in 2018 found just 38,884 active workers.
Manasseh Azure Awuni, who began exposing issues with the contract in 2013, described the president’s response as one of the most significant outcomes of his journalism career. He had proposed that assemblies and the YEA directly manage sweepers to improve oversight and pay.
