By Daniel Bampoe
The immediate past Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Kofi Agyepong, has issued a strong rebuttal to claims made by Zoomlion Ghana Limited in a press statement dated April 30, 2025, describing the sanitation company’s assertions as misleading and incomplete.
Zoomlion had claimed that it proposed an increase in allowances for sanitation workers under the YEA’s module to GHS420 per month in 2024, but that the Agency under Agyepong’s leadership “countered with a proposal to set the allowance at only GHS300.”
However, in a detailed response issued on May 2, Kofi Agyepong categorically denied ever making such a counter-offer, stating that the YEA’s official recommendation was in fact GHS500 per month per beneficiary.
According to Kofi Agyepong, the GHS500 proposal—although lower than what the YEA ideally wished to provide—was a product of budget constraints and was submitted to the YEA Board as the only formal counter-proposal under his administration.
He further criticized Zoomlion’s November 2024 proposal, which sought to increase the overall allocation per sanitation worker to GHS1,308, out of which only GHS420 would go to the beneficiary while GHS888 would be retained by the company as a management fee.
Agyepong described this arrangement as “excessive, unjustified, and deeply unfair,” revealing that his administration rejected the proposal outright and officially communicated its disapproval to Zoomlion.
In his statement, Agyepong also refuted Zoomlion’s claim that its proposal “is still under discussion,” clarifying that no further negotiations took place after the initial rejection and that any ongoing dialogue is solely with the current YEA leadership, not his former team.
Beyond the disputed figures, Agyepong used the opportunity to highlight broader reforms proposed by his administration during the contract renewal process with Zoomlion.
Among the key issues raised were the need for YEA to assume direct control of payments to beneficiaries—aligning the sanitation module with other programs under the agency—as well as a recommendation for all logistics procured under the contract to be stored in YEA-controlled warehouses.
According to Agyepong, both suggestions were aimed at enhancing transparency and accountability but were firmly rejected by Zoomlion.
“These were not minor administrative tweaks,” Agyepong stated.
“They were bold, reform-oriented proposals intended to protect the public purse and ensure fairness to the hardworking sweepers.”
He concluded his statement by urging the current leadership of the YEA to resist any undue pressure from Zoomlion and to remain committed to the public interest.
He also called on the public to view attempts to reform the Zoomlion-YEA arrangement as necessary efforts to ensure transparency and accountability, rather than as acts of political antagonism.
The ongoing back-and-forth underscores longstanding public scrutiny of the contractual relationship between Zoomlion and state institutions, particularly regarding financial terms and transparency in the management of sanitation workers.
