Award-winning investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has lambasted the Board of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) for its defence of a controversial contract with Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

In a scathing open letter, Manasseh alleged that Zoomlion has been implicated in corrupt practices by the World Bank and accused of numerous questionable deals in Ghana, including the contract with YEA’s Youth in Sanitation Module, which he described as exploitative and unconscionable.

According to him, Zoomlion was blacklisted by the World Bank in 2013 for corrupt practices in Liberia, where it reportedly paid bribes to facilitate contract execution and the processing of invoices.

“Zoomlion has been implicated in many corrupt deals in Ghana, but the political class has often looked away. I have published enough evidence of Zoomlion’s shady deals and still have more evidence. This is perhaps the reason the CEO of the company, Elder Joseph Siaw Agyepong of The Church of Pentecost, sued me for defamation and ran away from his own case after I filed my defence.
“I first investigated the Youth in Sanitation Module (the YEA contract with Zoomlion) in 2013. There is abundant evidence that the contract is unconscionable and fraught with corruption”.
Manasseh Azure Awuni, Award-Winning Investigative Journalist

A History of Corruption Allegations

Manasseh’s criticisms stem from his years of investigative work exposing the shady dealings between Zoomlion and the YEA.

He pointed out that the current arrangement allows Zoomlion to collect a whopping GHS 850 per sanitation worker per month, while the workers themselves are paid a meager GHS 250.

He noted that the workers, who clean streets and markets, receive no insurance, transportation allowance, or other benefits, with many going months without pay.

“You have avoided the substance of the unconscionable contract. How do you, with all good conscience, justify that you approved a deal that pays Zoomlion GHS 850 abut the workers take home GHS 250 a month? How do you sleep soundly at night and pray in your churches when you treat your fellow human beings like slaves?.
“How do you respond to the fact that the YEA pays its beneficiaries at least GHS 500 a month, but you approved this shady deal with Zoomlion, in which the cleaners are paid half of what the other YEA beneficiaries receive? Do you need to be reminded that the GHS 250 a month or $17 is far below the minimum wage?”.
Manasseh Azure Awuni, Award-Winning Investigative Journalist

GYEEDA Report and Calls for Termination Ignored

In his letter, Manasseh referred the YEA Board to multiple sources, including his own investigative reports and the 2013 GYEEDA (Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency) Report commissioned by former President John Dramani Mahama.

According to him, the report corroborated his findings of corruption and mismanagement within the YEA’s contract with Zoomlion.

He further revealed that in 2018, the then YEA CEO Justin Frimpong Kodua, now the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), publicly stated his intent to terminate the contract, calling it exploitative.

However, the former Nieman Fellow at Harvard University indicated that despite these findings and public declarations, the current YEA Board, chaired by Mrs. Cynthia Kusi Boateng, wife of National Cathedral Board Secretary Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng, chose to renew the contract in 2022.

This, Manasseh asserted, was done against the advice of the YEA’s current CEO, Kofi Agyepong, who had advocated for the agency and district assemblies to take over the management of the sanitation module.

Zoomlion Workers — Some Zoomlion staff clearing waste at a market

Unanswered Questions and Unjustifiable Defenses

Manasseh sharply questioned the YEA Board’s defence of the contract, particularly their argument that terminating it would affect the 45,000 beneficiaries.

He pointed out that no one, including the management of the YEA, could authenticate this figure, as the agency has struggled to provide accurate data on the number of sanitation workers assigned to various assemblies.

Manasseh argued that the assemblies are already equipped to supervise the sweepers without Zoomlion.

“Your claim that the contract cannot be terminated is false. In fact you don’t have to terminate it. The contract expires every two years so all you need to do is to hand over the cleaners to their respective assemblies. And how is the YEA able to manage the other modules and cannot manage this one? The simplest thing to do is to ask the cleaners to report to the various assemblies.
“They are supposed to be employees of the YEA and the assemblies. Zoomlion is only managing them. The company is not responsible for their recruitment and should only manage the numbers you give to it. Are you saying the assemblies in Ghana with their sanitation and waste management departments cannot supervise people to sweep their markets? Please, think of a better lie if you want to keep this unconscionable deal with Zoomlion”.
Manasseh Azure Awuni, Award-Winning Investigative Journalist

He further blasted the board’s claim that fundamental changes were made to the contract to improve its fairness, calling it a “moot” point.

Manasseh highlighted that Zoomlion already has sanitation contracts with the assemblies through the Sanitation Improvement Package (SIP), and that those contracts are also marred by corruption. “The rot is worse than you know”, he declared.

Over GHS 3 Billion Cost to Ghana

Moreover, the award-winning investigative journalist revealed that the corrupt Zoomlion-YEA contract has cost Ghana over GHS 3 billion since it began in 2006, with the current form of the contract costing over GHS 500 million annually.

He explained that this figure is conservative, as the true cost of the contract’s damage to the country’s finances may be even higher.

Referencing his widely-read book “The Fourth John: Reign, Rejection & Rebound”, Manasseh reechoed how government officials often act irrationally when dealing with contracts involving Zoomlion and its parent company, the Jospong Group.

Manasseh concluded his letter with a passionate plea for the YEA Board to reconsider its stance on the Zoomlion contract, urging them to prioritize the well-being of the sanitation workers who are unfairly treated under the current arrangement.

He also criticized the board’s moral compass, highlighting that its chairperson, Mrs. Cynthia Kusi Boateng, is married to a prominent pastor.

“You were put on the YEA board to serve the interest of Ghanaians, not Zoomlion. And I don’t think you can convince any Ghanaian with brains and conscience that it is okay to pay Zoomlion GHS 850 per sweeper a month and ask the company to keep GHS 600 and pay the sweepers a paltry GHS 250 a month”.
Manasseh Azure Awuni, Award-Winning Investigative Journalist

With the YEA-Zoomlion contract set to expire in September 2024, Manasseh warned that any further renewal would be a gross disservice to the people of Ghana.

He called on the YEA to hand over the management of the Youth in Sanitation Module to the assemblies, as originally intended, and to put an end to what he described as a “stinking” and “corruptdeal”.

He expressed hope that the current YEA Board would break this cycle of poor decision-making; the ball, as Manasseh pointed out, is now firmly in the YEA Board’s court.