President John Mahama has told investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni that his petition to discontinue the YEA-Zoomlion contract “is being given the necessary attention.”

Two weeks ago, the multiple award-winning journalist formally petitioned President Mahama to discontinue the 19-year-old contract between the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

Under the last contract that expired in September 2024, GH¢850 was allocated to each sweeper. Zoomlion keeps GH¢600 and pays the sweepers GH¢250 a month, according to the contract.

Zoomlion also charges interest if the YEA delays in paying the company for three months. In 2024, Zoomlion charged an interest of GH¢90 million.

Zoomlion recently revealed that its latest proposal is “under discussion” at the YEA.

In this proposal, Zoomlion wants the allocation per sweeper to be raised to GH¢1,308, so that Zoomlion would take GH¢888 and give the sweepers GH¢420 a month.

The YEA has no data to verify the 45,000 sweepers Zoomlion presents for payment every month, even after raising an alarm in 2018.

The YEA said its headcount showed that 38,884 sweepers were on the ground, contrary to Zoomlion's claim of 45,000.

The YEA CEO, Justin Kodua Frimpong (the current NPP General Secretary), said Zoomlion failed to submit its payroll for verification when the YEA requested.

In 2022, the YEA could not provide any data when the Accra Metropolitan Assembly complained in a letter that most sweepers had stopped working. Meanwhile, Zoomlion continued to bill the state for 45,000 people every month.

Manasseh Awuni contends that the contract is fraught with corruption and does not provide value for money.

A letter signed by the Secretary to the President, Dr. Callistus Mahama, acknowledged receipt of the journalist’s petition.

“This is to inform you that the matter is being given the necessary attention and the outcome will be communicated to you in due course.”

Some pasts CEOs of the YEA have, at various times, raised concerns over the contract.

The immediate past CEO of the YEA, Kofi Baah Agyepong, told the YEA board that the contract with Zoomlion should be cancelled, as the YEA was capable of running the sweepers’ module without a third-party company, just as it runs other modules. In all the modules, the YEA pays all its beneficiaries more than the sweepers, whose payment is routed through Zoomlion.

Manasseh Awuni proposed to the President that the contract be discontinued so that the assemblies and the YEA can supervise the sweepers.

In this way, the assemblies can have direct control of the sweepers, who are paid with the assemblies’ share of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).

If Zoomlion is eliminated as the middleman, the sweepers will enjoy better wages and be motivated to show up and work to keep the nation clean.

Zoomlion has a separate contract that charges all the assemblies to lift the refuse collected by the YEA sweepers to the dumping sites. This contract, the Sanitation Improvement Package (SIP), requires waste trucks, which some assemblies do not have because a chunk of their budget is deducted to pay Zoomlion.

Manasseh Awuni said in his petition to the President that the assemblies could maintain the SIP contract with Zoomlion, since its immediate termination could cause sanitation challenges.

“When I investigated GYEEDA (now YEA) in 2013, President Mahama took drastic actions, including terminating contracts, passing the YEA Act, prosecuting and jailing two persons, and retrieving funds,” he said in a press statement after submitting the petition to the President.

“With the documentary evidence I submitted with the petition, I am confident that the President will terminate the Zoomlion contract, which is the only YEA contract that was not cancelled after my 2013 investigations, even though the GYEEDA report President Mahama commissioned made serious adverse findings against Zoomlion,” Manasseh Azure Awuni said.