Manasseh Azure Awuni has asked Assemblies across Ghana to reject entrenched sanitation contract arrangements that have drained their budgets and crippled basic service delivery.
In a strongly worded open letter, the investigative journalist called on Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) and Presiding Members to resist the perpetuation of fraudulent waste management contracts, particularly those involving Zoomlion Ghana Limited and its subsidiaries.
“I’m writing this letter to remind you that you have a duty to help safeguard the national interest and save your people. Some of your assemblies are so poor that you can’t provide drinking water for your people”
Manasseh Azure Awuni, Investigative Journalist
The call followed recent pronouncements by President John Dramani Mahama, who indicated at a gathering in Dodowa that sanitation responsibilities would be decentralised to the MMDAs. This reform includes a break from the long-standing Youth Employment Agency (YEA)-Zoomlion sanitation sweepers’ contract, which has been in operation since 2006.
According to the Ministry of Local Government, “sanitation will become a key performance indicator for all MMDCEs,” placing renewed attention and accountability on their oversight. Manasseh noted that the assemblies are now in a position to effect positive change, but warned that many are already compromised by their complicity in dubious contracts.
In his letter, Manasseh referenced multiple sanitation contracts – often running concurrently and executed without transparency or results – that continue to siphon off large portions of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).
He argued that Zoomlion and associated firms have grown wealthy at the expense of poor assemblies unable to meet their communities’ basic needs.
“A chunk of your share of the Common Fund is paid to Zoomlion and its subsidiaries,” Manasseh stated, referencing contracts for sweeping, waste lifting, fumigation, and dumpsite management, among others.
The Ministry of Finance documents and the Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA) reports confirm that Zoomlion has received over GHS 1 billion for sanitation-related services.
However, in several cases, the assemblies either do not supervise or cannot confirm if services were rendered, with Manasseh pointing to widespread source deductions and contract impositions from Accra.
Manasseh listed over half a dozen sanitation contracts currently active within all 261 MMDAs.
These include the YEA-Zoomlion sweepers’ contract, the Sanitation Improvement Package (SIP), Waste Landfills Company dumpsite contracts, three separate fumigation contracts involving the Ministries of Health and Local Government, and the sanitation guards initiative.
The letter cited an internal communication from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), which acknowledged that assemblies have no control over the sweepers they pay for. Zoomlion reportedly received GHS 27 million per month in management fees under the YEA sweepers contract alone, which President Mahama has since discontinued.
Manasseh asserted, “If you enable it and continue with these shady deals that you have the power to end, you will be nothing but thieves.”
The Assemblies’ Capabilities and Failures
The letter challenged the idea that assemblies cannot manage sanitation services independently. It highlighted evidence from assemblies like Tarkwa Nsuaem, which has reportedly performed better than Zoomlion in container lifting under the SIP.
“Zoomlion’s workers stated that the reason they could not lift the containers regularly was that, after receiving payment in Accra, the company did not provide them with funds to purchase fuel”
Manasseh Azure Awuni, Investigative Journalist
Manasseh also recalled the resistance of some assembly officials to what he described as “coercive contract arrangements,” including a case in Tano North where a coordinating director avoided a GHS 320,000 annual debt by rejecting a landfill contract and opting for a local solution that cost just GHS 20,000.
Addressing the assemblies directly, Manasseh warned that they will be held responsible if they choose to perpetuate these fraudulent contracts.
“If the all-powerful finance minister is today a wanted fugitive, don’t assume you’re too powerful to escape justice,” he warned, referencing the legal troubles of former officials under public scrutiny.
He urged assemblies to reject third-party contractors for sweeping services and called for the complete scrapping of fumigation contracts, which he said were often duplicated across ministries without proper oversight or necessity.
He recommended that assemblies use their DACF allocations to buy their own waste trucks and hire their own staff to handle sanitation, and concluded the letter with a moral and civic appeal, calling on assembly members to act in the interest of their constituents, not corrupt contractors.
“If you collude with sanitation officers and private companies to forge information to approve invoices, you will one day be called to account for it”
Manasseh Azure Awuni, Investigative Journalist
He urged all MMDAs to seize the opportunity presented by President Mahama’s reforms to rebuild trust, strengthen institutional capacity, and reverse the decades-long drain on public funds through opaque sanitation deals.
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