Manasseh Azure: Corruption, not capacity, is Ghana’s sanitation crisis

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Investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has launched a scathing indictment of Ghana’s sanitation sector, alleging that corruption—not a lack of capacity at the local government level—is the root cause of the country’s persistent filth.

In a series of public interventions, the award-winning journalist and Nieman Fellow at Harvard University has argued that successive governments since the Kufuor administration have used sanitation as a “conduit for corruption,” siphoning billions of cedis through opaque contracts awarded to Zoomlion Ghana Limited and other subsidiaries of the Jospong Group.

At the heart of the controversy is the long-standing sanitation module contract between the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and Zoomlion, a deal Manasseh has tracked since his groundbreaking investigations into the GYEEDA scandal in 2013. Under the arrangement, each sweeper was allocated GH¢850 monthly—but Zoomlion kept GH¢600 as management fees while workers took home just GH¢250. Sweepers reportedly went unpaid for over a year, with arrears spanning months. Zoomlion now allegedly wants to increase the allocation to GH¢1,308 per worker, keeping GH¢888 and paying sweepers GH¢420.

Equipment Scandal

Manasseh’s investigation has also exposed a troubling pattern regarding equipment procurement. Politicians and their cronies have claimed that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) lack the equipment to manage sanitation independently. Yet, he alleges, hundreds of millions of dollars were diverted to Zoomlion’s sister companies to import equipment for all assemblies—equipment that turned out to be for road construction, not sanitation.

“If assemblies keep the money paid to Zoomlion for about a year, many of them can procure their own refuse trucks and equipment,” Manasseh told Bubune FM on July 10, 2026. He noted that street sweeping is largely manual work requiring only basic tools such as brooms and wheelbarrows, and that assemblies could manage the work directly.

‘Robbing the Assemblies’

Manasseh has documented what he describes as an entrenched pattern of contracts awarded to Jospong Group subsidiaries across multiple government programmes—fumigation, street sweeping, refuse disposal, landfill management, and sanitation guards. In most cases, deductions were made at source from district allocations, limiting the resources available for assemblies to conduct independent sanitation work.

One case, dubbed “Robbing the Assemblies” in a 2017 documentary, involved over GH¢98 million released in June 2015 for a Sanitation Improvement Programme. All 11 companies handpicked for the contract were Jospong subsidiaries—one of which was not even registered at the time of the award. The fumigation work was already covered by two separate ongoing Zoomlion contracts, yet a third contract was awarded covering the same districts. Assembly officials across the country had no knowledge of the work being executed. Despite a comprehensive police docket compiled with the CID, no prosecutions followed.

Manasseh estimates Ghana lost over GH¢200 million in these sanitation deals alone.

A Tale of Two Landfills

To illustrate his point, Manasseh has pointed to the contrasting performance of local contractors. J. Stanley Owusu and Company Limited, a local sanitation firm, has managed the Kumasi landfill site effectively for years despite lacking the kind of state support Zoomlion receives. In contrast, Zoomlion’s management of the Kpone landfill site has been plagued with challenges. The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly reportedly owes J. Stanley Owusu approximately GH¢66 million over eight years, while Zoomlion is owed about GH¢165 million—a disparity Manasseh suggests reflects the political connections that keep Zoomlion’s contracts alive regardless of performance.

A 20-Year Pattern

Manasseh has traced the rot back to 2006, when the Kufuor administration sidelined established sanitation companies like City and Country Waste and awarded nationwide contracts to Zoomlion—which at the time had no equipment or resources to compete.

“This is not a matter of partisan politics,” Manasseh stated in a public appeal to YEA CEO Malik Basintale. “This is about justice, accountability, and respect for the dignity of our workers”. He accused both the Mahama and Akufo-Addo administrations of perpetuating what he called “fraudulent deals” with Zoomlion.

He has also warned grassroots sanitation groups like BuzStopBoys against accepting Zoomlion’s support, cautioning that the company may be attempting to exploit their credibility for public relations gains.

A Way Forward

In June 2025, President John Dramani Mahama announced that the YEA-Zoomlion contract would not be renewed—a decision Manasseh hailed as “justice” and a “decisive and moral action”. However, Manasseh has cautioned that Zoomlion still retains separate contracts under the Sanitation Improvement Package (SIP) for refuse evacuation and waste transportation.

Manasseh has urged the government to eliminate the middleman role Zoomlion plays and instead empower local assemblies to supervise and pay sanitation workers directly from the District Assemblies Common Fund. He has also called for sanitation workers to be employed directly by assemblies, guaranteeing better salaries, pension contributions, and improved working conditions.

“Protecting local companies should not mean supporting fraud,” Manasseh said.

The Jospong Group and Zoomlion Ghana Limited have denied the allegations.

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Manasseh Azure Awuni is the founding Editor-in-Chief of The Fourth Estate, a non-profit public-interest journalism project, and a 2023-2024 Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard University.