Waste management giant, Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL,) has stated that it is not true that the company has been cheating beneficiaries under the Youth in Sanitation module, which is run by the Ghana Youth Entrepreneurial Employment Development Agency (GYEEDA) formerly called National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).
Addressing a well-attended press conference in Accra yesterday, the Company Lawyer of Zoomlion, Mr. Kwame Gyan, pointed out that per the contractual agreement they have with government, they do not determine the salaries [or allowances] of ?beneficiaries? under the Youth in Sanitation module.
?Payments to beneficiaries are made regularly on monthly basis to reimburse on quarterly basis by government. However, there are occasional challenges when reimbursements from government are more than two quarters,? he disclosed.
The Youth in Sanitation module is run by GYEEDA in partnership with Zoomlion.
Mr. Gyan further denied the report that government pays GH?500 per beneficiary every month, out of which only GH?100 is paid to them [the beneficiaries] monthly.
?It is also not true that Zoomlion keeps the remaining GH?400 out of the GH?500 as management fees,? he intimated.
It will be recalled that Joy FM recently reported that GYEEDA has become a breeding ground for corruption as some officials of the programme divert state funds into their private pockets.
A contract signed by the then Minister for Youth and Sports, Clement Kofi Humado, in March, 2011, and sighted by Joy FM pegged Zoomlion management fee per beneficiary at GH?300 per month and beneficiary allowance at GH?50.
In November that same year, then Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, signed a document in which the beneficiary allowance was increased from GH?50 to GH?100 and Zoomlion?s management fees moved from GH?300 to GH?400.
Going by the number from Zoomlion, the company makes over 17 million cedis a month after paying the beneficiaries indicating that means in a year, the company gets over GH?200 million.
But Mr. Gyan, who doubles as the Director of the Jospong Group, explained that ?It was not Zoomlion which determined how much money to be paid to the beneficiaries? since according to him, the beneficiaries are not core employees of Zoomlion.
He indicated that under the contract signed with GYEEDA in 2006, Zoomlion is to provide logistics and equipment, store, maintain and replace logistics and equipment as well as submit regular quarterly reports to GYEEDA.
STORY: KORYEKPOR AWLESU FREEMAN
