Justin Koduah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the YEA
The main waste services provider under the National Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Zoomlion Ghana Limited has been accused of fleecing sanitation workers.
The company, which is part of the Jospong Group, is said to be paying beneficiaries under the Sanitation Module programme GH¢100 and pockets GH¢400 as management fee.
The new administration of YEA, addressing the media in Accra yesterday, described the development as “unfair.”
This has accordingly forced the YEA to review its activities with interested service providers, apparently breaking the monopoly of Zoomlion as manager of the model.
Justin Koduah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the YEA, revealed that it had become imperative for the new administration to look into the operations of the main service provider under the sanitation module.
“Zoomlion furnished the agency with a total figure of 45,320 as beneficiaries nationwide, but when the Agency initiated headcount exercise to verify the authenticity, only 38,884 were realized,” he said.
According to the CEO, the exercise revealed that appointment letters were not given to the beneficiaries at the time of engagement.
“The company could not furnish the Agency with payment records on its payroll,” he said, noting, “Our review established that each beneficiary is paid GH¢100 whiles GH¢400 goes to the service provider as management fee,” Mr Koduah averred.
He said there was a cabinet directive in 2016, directing the Agency to conduct new arrangement with the service provider for future engagements in accordance with the Agency’s Act (Act 887) and Regulation 2016 (LI 2231) were also not adhered to by the previous administration, hence engaging in the fraudulent act.
Mr. Koduah said due to all these shortfalls, the Agency had decided to review its activities with interested service providers.
“The management of the sanitation module will be subjected to competitive bidding in line with the YEA Act and Legal Instruments,” according to him.
“We ask that all persons interested in the working under the sanitation should reapply at a date that would be soon announced.”
Reduction
“We have been able to reduce the number of beneficiaries on our payroll from 62,825 to 42,420 due to the new measures we introduced,” he maintained.
Mr Kondua indicated that YEA has entered into agreement with state institutions like the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Local Government, Ghana Police Service, Ministry of Youth and Sports, among others, to find innovative ways of creating more jobs for the youth.
By Emmanuel Kubi