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Waste Management Company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited has taken a jab at management of the Youth Employment Agency over some misconceptions thrown out to the public by the agency.

The management of YEA, as part of measures to streamline its activities, revoked its contract with Zoomlion Ghana Ltd under their sanitation module.

The Agency announced to the press that it has reviewed the sanitation module and so called on "all persons interested in working under the sanitation module are to reapply on a date soon to be communicated. That, management of the sanitation module, will be subjected to competitive bidding in line with the YEA Act and Legal Instrument. That, subsequent arrangements with service providers will pay beneficiaries deservedly".

According to CEO of YEA, Justin Kodua Frimpong revealed that his outfit conducted a verification exercise between June and September in 2017 to ascertain the "number of beneficiaries under its various modules. Management also commenced organizational restructuring exercise to properly position the Agency as an efficient employment entity.

"Zoomlion Ghana Limited has till date been unable to furnish the Agency with payment records of Beneficiaries on their payroll. The review established that each Beneficiary is paid GHC 100.00 whiles GHC 400.00 goes to the service provider as management fees. This practice we consider an affront to Beneficiaries on the programme."

According to a statement by the Agency, Zoomlion Ghana has failed to adhere to directives in accordance with the Agency's Act (Act 887) and the Youth Employment Regulations 2016 (LI 2231).

Responding to the issues broached by YEA, management of Zoomlion Ghana in a press statement, indicated that YEA is indebted to the company because they have failed to pay up millions of cedis over four years.

"Zoomlion has for countless years had to pre-finance the payment of these allowances of beneficiaries by borrowing money at high interest rates but at no cost to the government due to delays its payment. Presently, payments to the company are in arrears of over four years running in millions of cedis".

The company further stated that the decision to pay beneficiaries Gh¢100 per month out of the Gh¢500 Management fee was the initiative of YEA.

According to the company's Communication Directorate, "at the inception of the module in 2006, beneficiaries were receiving Gh¢50 per month, it was the management of Zoomlion that initiated the move for the allowance to be increased to Gh¢100".

To them, it is the responsibility of the management of YEA to review the amount and so they shouldn't pin the blame on Zoomlion Ghana.

"Further to the Management Service Agreement, the Gh¢400 management fee which has not been reviewed since 2011, goes into the procurement of Logistics for the delivery of the service by the YEA operatives. The assumption that this money goes into the pocket of the service provider is therefore very erroneous! The following are some of the logistics the money goes to buy: Wheel barrows, shovels, brooms, rakes, cutlasses, alley brooms, jackets, spades, uniforms, hand gloves, nose masks, reflective jackets, safety boots, pickers, street brush, road cones etc. These are supplied regularly and are all paid for from the management fee. Apart from these, vehicles to carry supervisory staff including fueling the vehicles are all covered from the Management Fee".

On the issue of Zoomlion not issuing appointment letters to beneficiaries, the company stated that it's also the responsibility of YEA to issue the letters because "since the inception of the Programme in 2006, under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), Zoomlion has never issued any appointment letter to any beneficiary under the sanitation module".

Therefore "per the Management Service Agreement, employment of the beneficiaries is the sole responsibility of the Agency who then have the mandate to issue appointment letters", the company's statement read.

The management of Zoomlion also went deeper detailing the public about the reasons that accounted for the reduction in numbers of the beneficiaries that turned up for a counting exercise by YEA.

The Youth Employment Agency revealed that "Zoomlion Ghana Limited furnished the Agency with a total figure of 45,320 as Beneficiaries across the country detailing a regional breakdown. The Agency initiated a nationwide headcount to verify the figures as submitted by Zoomlion Ghana Limited. Out of the 45,320 names, 38,884 turned out for the exercise. In response to the discrepancy in the data, Zoomlion Ghana Limited contended that, Beneficiary apathy and short notice given to Beneficiaries accounted for the discrepancy."

But according to Zoomlion, certain disparities accounted for the incident, stating that the 38,884 beneficiaries turned up for the counting exercise was due to shortfalls resulting from “a mixture of reasons, which the CEO of YEA, Mr Justin Kodua Frimpong has himself alluded to in a couple of media interviews”.

"Zoomlion wish to state that the company’s number is captured in an album with the names, pictures and other details of beneficiaries for verification purposes".

Prior to the Agency’s exercise, the company further said there had been series of headcount exercises conducted by “1) the Agency’s regional and district representatives together with Zoomlion Ghana Limited, 2) District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) directorate, 3) the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA’s) and Zoomlion Ghana Limited within a period of two (2) months with the objective of ascertaining the true numbers of the beneficiaries. In all these exercises, the beneficiaries had to commute back and forth from their communities to the district capitals and this may have led to the comparatively low turnout as compared to the numbers of beneficiaries in the album provided".

Furthermore, "late arrival or ‘no show’ of the Head count team from the Agency to some of the centers. This situation led to most of the beneficiaries leaving the centers out of frustration. A situation which seriously accounted for the team not meeting all beneficiaries to get them to be counted. Short notice to the beneficiaries by the Agency upon the team’s arrival in the district caused beneficiaries in the hinterlands to miss the headcount. An example of this happened in Ejura Sekyere-Dumase District. Most of the communities have means of transport to the district capital only on market days therefore it became difficult to travel to the district capital when it is not a market day. Beneficiaries also had challenges regarding payment for transportation to headcount centres...Zoomlion spent more hours spanning a day to two days at particular headcount centre to ensure that no one was left out compared to the Agency which spent some few hours in a day and hurriedly counted beneficiaries they met and left this resulting in the discrepancy" the company added.

Zoomlion Ghana Ltd however "commended YEA for its plans to restructure the Sanitation Module" and pledged to "commit to the restructuring process".