DON'T STEAL IN THE NAME OF FLOODING

By Manasseh Azure Awuni

You may have seen the comic video in which officials of the Jospong Group of Companies are telling President Akufo-Addo they will dredge the Korle and turn it into a recreational area.

Despite hundreds of millions paid to Dredge Masters as part of the over the years, the place is still a mess

What you see here is 100 million cedis paid to Zoomlion's sister company, Dredge Masters, as part of the hundreds of millions paid over the years for the project.

As I write this, the place is still a mess.

Even as so much money has been spent without any tangible change, politicians and a section of the media are using the floods to emotionally blackmail Ghanaians to give Zoomlion and its sister companies more money.

Two days ago, I read an article on myjoyonline titled: "Cancellation of Zoomlion contract worsens Accra flooding."

The article referenced the cancellation of the shady YEA contract, in which the sweepers were paid like slaves, and all the money went to Zoomlion.

For nearly 20 years, Zoomlion had that contract, but the cities, towns and markets were always choked with filth.

All the assemblies in Ghana still have sanitation contracts with Zoomlion.

The PR article for Zoomlion quoted the Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Ahmed Ibrahim, as saying that the cancellation of the YEA contract had worsened sanitation across the country.

For those who have paid attention, Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, like many of his predecessors in that ministry, has been speaking like an employee of Zoomlion who's hired to promote the company.

But only an idiot or someone ignorant of Zoomlion's near-monopoly in the sanitation sector would fall for the emotional blackmail.

Someone should remind Mr Ahmed Ibrahim that even those of us younger than him still remember the effectiveness of the sanitation inspectors (nsamansaman) in our communities. That system has collapsed, and the contract has been awarded to Zoomlion.

Assemblies cannot enforce their sanitation bylaws because they were asked to stop so that Zoomlion would take over under the Sanitation Guards contract.

Can Ahmed Ibrahim account to the people for how Zoomlion has done that instead of continuing with the shameful advocacy for a company feeding fat on the state and delivering no tangible results?

When the June 3rd flooding happened, Zoomlion had that contract.

Even as we speak, Zoomlion still has the nationwide contract with all the assemblies to convey what has been swept to the final disposal sites.

Is the minister claiming that the assemblies are not sweeping their markets, or that Zoomlion is not conveying the refuse in time, given that the company is known to always default on its responsibilities?

And if an assembly is not clean, what does the minister tell the MCE or DCE? Must shady contracts be the solution to every problem, even if there's enough evidence that the company the minister is advocating for fails to deliver, but gets paid?

I also read that Zoomlion's so-called transfer station contract has been renewed to ease the flooding. But who monitors to ensure that the company, which is largely responsible for carting the refuse, claims to be recycling and handling, and the transfer station is doing a good job?

Before the government rushes to dissipate public funds under the guise of curbing the flooding, we should do what Dr Zanetor Rawlings is reported to have said. Let's first account for the dredging.

Hundreds of millions have been sunk into dredging, sanitation, and desilting using statutory allocations and World Bank funding. If we are not seeing results, we should account for that.

The authorities should also enforce the building codes.

Using this unfortunate flooding to award more contracts will amount to the government stealing from the people who are suffering from inaction and similar shady procurements in the past.