Dead or alive: How non-payment of allowances is threatening the push to keep Ghana clean

When the local government ministry started the sanitation guards initiative in 2007, the goal was clear - to help make Ghana cleaner. 

But as laudable as the idea is, a lot of the guards who have been recruited over the years have dropped out of the program managed by Zoomlion and many are considering exiting as well due to non-payment of allowances stated in their contracts. 

The Fourth Estate's Elizabeth Abena Egyin and Edmond Boateng who spoke with some sanitation guards and municipal health officers join us on the podcast to tell us more about the why the guards have not been paid and the impact the non-payment of allowances is having on the work of the district and municipal health and environmental officers.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:07

From the Media Foundation for West Africa, this is the Fourth Estate podcast. Hello and welcome, Amniya Rufi Smatabe. Imagine landing a job with a company that is a leader in its field. You go to work every day without fail, but at the end of the month, your salary does not reflect in your account. Not just for a month or two, but for at least a couple of years. What do you do? That is the dilemma many sanitation guards employed by Zoom Lion Ghana Limited find themselves in. 4,000 of them were recruited as part of a government initiative to improve sanitation across the country. But the program is almost at a standstill as many of these sanitation guards have quit the job over non-payment of their allowances. Although the finance ministry disclosed to the fourth estate that in 2022 alone it paid Zoom Lion 37.12 million Ghana CDs, most of the sanitation guards we spoke to said they were never paid or were paid as little as 100 Ghana CDs a month. Elizabeth Abna Ejeen and Edmund Boating have been following this story and they joined me to discuss it. Elizabeth Edmund, welcome to the Fourth Estate podcast.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:18

Thank you, Need. So, Elizabeth, let's start with you. To put this in context, the Sanitation Guards program started as a pilot in 2007, 2008, thereabout. When did Zoom Lion get the contract to recruit the guards and what exactly are the guards supposed to do?

SPEAKER_06 1:35

Okay. So in 2007-2008, the sanitation guards program was launched, and um 4,000 sanitation guards were recruited. Now, the purpose of the recruits was to um these guards were supposed to help supervise the sweepers, the sweepers that the YEEA brought in to help clean the environment across the country.

SPEAKER_04 1:58

So they were not doing the sweeping that they were doing.

SPEAKER_06 2:02

And then they were also assisting environmental officers. We have environmental officers actually that goes to the field to check if the environment or all households are kept clean. We have environmental officers who go around to check. Now, these sanitation guides assist these environmental officers in the field by educating residents on how to maintain their surroundings clean. Also, they also go to schools in the neighborhood to educate students and teachers on how to keep their environment clean. And then also they do some cleanup exercises. So these sanitation guides um actually came to help sanitize the country as in keep the country clean. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:42

Okay. And um, Edmund, the finance ministry, um, when you made a request to them, they indicated that they paid Zoom Lion 37 million CDs in 2022 alone. Uh, for management fees. And I'm assuming that also includes to pay um the sanitation guards. Do we know if there were up to 4,000 guards still around that time?

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Um, I think on the record, it would say we we can't be very sure whether the guards were up to 4,000 because um, for instance, we spoke to one environmental health officer, um, the also supervised their how do you call it the sanitation guards. Sanitation guards. And they told us that for a long time the program had, in his words, collapsed. And the 15 sanitation guards that were uh allocated to his district were nowhere to be found. And not only that, um we we spoke to environmental officers in Keta, we spoke to some in um I think some parts in the eastern region, um, Shai of Sudoku, all of them were consistent about the fact that a lot of this of the guards had either quit or they are not necessarily very um fluid with their work. So we can be quite certain, based on what they've told us, that they were not up to 4,000. And and even the guards themselves confirmed to us that most of their colleagues have quit and they were even thinking about quitting, but just that they've worked for so long and then they are waiting for their uh allowances, but for that, they would have also quit. So, based on their anecdotes, um, we can say that by that time they were not up to 4,000 people working.

SPEAKER_04 4:24

Okay, well, you've been speaking with some of them. Uh, let's listen to what they had to say, and then we'll continue from there.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Well, just give you something.

SPEAKER_06 4:43

So, how do you survive? Are you married to you married to the kids? Is it like your wife supports you? So, what is it in the job? For almost three years.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

For almost three years, you've got to do the question.

SPEAKER_05 5:25

You said on the phone, there was my family that it is a money. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Um, hearing anything from them.

SPEAKER_05 5:38

So you've not been paid.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

You can ask me.

SPEAKER_05 5:52

Okay, so so the first mobile money, how much did they send to you? Okay, so on the phone, they would five hundred cities a month, but they pay you hundreds of this. Is that what you're saying? Yes. Wow. Have they paid you this year?

SPEAKER_02 6:22

From January.

SPEAKER_05 6:25

They've not paid.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

It's not been paid.

SPEAKER_05 6:27

What about last year?

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Last year.

SPEAKER_04 6:32

So they they're essentially saying that even the hundred cities a month they get, it's not regular. So I'm I'm just wondering, as um Edmund was saying, that some are waiting for their pay, otherwise they would have quit. From your interactions with those, at least you spoke to um Elizabeth, do they ever think they will ever see that money they are owed?

SPEAKER_06 6:59

Well, some of them have the hope that they are going to receive the allowances because, according to them, even the hundred cities they pay them a month. Sometimes it takes up to seven months, and then they give them just four months. Sometimes eight months, they give them just three or five months. So, and some too have worked as as long as 20 years, as long as 10 years. And then when I even spoke with them, they said the last time they were paid was in um December 2024. Yeah, which is which is up to two years now that they've not paid them. So if they can wait up to seven months and then they will get five months uh allowances. Well, let's let's keep our hopes high. Two years, maybe we may get some one year at least. Because if they stay home, they have nothing to eat. If they stay home, people will see them to be jobless. At least if they wake up in the morning, they they they go to work, they tell people they are going to work, they go to work, and then at the end of the month, nothing comes. At least they feel they've gone to work. But some also want to quit. When I spoke with some, they said they they they they want to quit. But quitting is also a problem. When you quit, what are you going to do? You have to start looking for a new job. That is it. That is it. So that's it has been a challenge. It has been a challenge. When we when you release to the first uh person that spoke, he's married with five children and then he earns 100 cities a month. Can you imagine? And then the last time he was paid was in December 2024.

SPEAKER_04 8:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 8:31

So it's it's it's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. And for for Zoom Lion to take uh over 37 million, and then out of this money, they say some some of the money is supposed to be used for um management, management fees and allowances. So let's say if even if all this money is not supposed to be going to the sanitation guards, some has to go to management. Management includes the uniforms they wear, the the gadgets they used to work, and all those things. I spoke with most of them, and then they said when they were recruited in somewhere in 2017-2008 that they gave them uniforms. They've not received uniforms again.

SPEAKER_04 9:12

So just that one time.

SPEAKER_06 9:14

Just that one time. Some two told me they didn't even receive uniforms at all. Some two they received uniforms and uh now they are kind of bloated. So the uniform doesn't even fit anymore. So we we don't even we don't really know where exactly that money went.

SPEAKER_04 9:33

Yeah. Yeah. And you've been speaking with some of the municipal um environmental health officers also. At least let's listen to one of them and then Kofi, I'll come to you um to ask you the follow-up question.

SPEAKER_07 9:46

Some are doing well, and some two are not doing well because of the the the I was not a salary, it's a commission or something. Allowance. Allowance they give them, and they're sitting. So they don't come to work. You know, when they started, they were doing well. So it got when time they were dropping from the jobs gradually. We're having about seven, but it's level two now. The two are very effective, and because they are elderly people and they have not been paid about two years now, and then the secondly two, they don't have any specific job description. When they employ them, they'll tell them that they are coming to work with the environmental health officers. So they are also thinking they are environmental officers. So when they come and they realize we are giving them different roles and responsibilities, then they are dropping.

SPEAKER_04 10:30

So, um, Kofi, how does this affect the work of the municipal health um officers? Because in her case, at least, she says the two that are remaining are at least showing up and still doing the work, but she believes it's because they are elderly. So probably they I guess they're thinking, well, if I quit, there's nothing else for me to do. I can't start looking for a job all over. But in places where they have the younger ones who are willing or ready to quit, how is this affecting the work they do?

SPEAKER_00 11:00

I think doesn't really matter if you're young or old in this situation, if if if if you're not being paid for um the work that you're supposed to do. Um, I think in one of the locations, Asin Manzu or so, in the Eastern region, the environmental health officer told me that there's not nobody there. I mean, assisting them. And I I stand to be corrupted, but I think in almost all the districts or municipalities, you wouldn't get maybe three environmental health officers in one um district assembly. So if these people were supposed to be there to support them, then they could cover the area. These people who are in the assemblies, excuse me to say, probably are just sitting in the office most of the time. So even though they are supposed to supervise these guys, the guards are the ones who eventually be on the ground. So them not being around, I think is going to affect the work entirely because they are the ones, they are the faces, they are the ones who are supposed to ensure that the sweepers sweep well. So if they are not on the ground, the work wouldn't be done. And um we can say whatever we want to say, but then I think we will need to fill that gap. And no matter how we want to fill that gap, if the government wants to take it up on itself or hire somebody else, I think the most important thing is uh for us to ensure that people get paid for the work that they do, and those who are to ensure that the work is done, ensure that the work gets done, and not maybe get more money than the people who are actually on the ground or however. I think uh Elizabeth made a point that I think it's important for us to clarify in the sense that we spoke to one um project management expert, and he says that because we don't have the contract, we can't necessarily know that um Zoom line was supposed to provide equipment of any kind. Um and we have asked the Ministry of Umm several times for the contracts you know that govern this project, but they won't minus. So that raises further questions about why wouldn't the ministry give us these documents for us to know what our money, our taxes are being used for. Without that, I mean we're going to be speculating, but um it's because they have created the room for that. That's why this may be happening. But if they give us the information, then we we will know who to hold accountable um for why these um lapses or why these people have not been paid for God knows how long, um, why that is happening and how that can be solved.

SPEAKER_04 13:44

Yeah, Elizabeth, uh Edmund just actually led me straight to the next question I was going to ask that the ministry hasn't responded to your queries so far. Um, I'm wondering what else are they saying about the initiative? Do they want it to continue? Do they want to end it? Because if it started with 4,000, you know, and people are dropping off by the by because they are not getting their allowances and we don't even know what the strength is, is it something they still want to keep going or they just want to scrap it all together?

SPEAKER_06 14:14

Okay, so during our investigations, we also relied some some kind of trend. So in 2007-2008, 4,000 sanitation guards were recruited. Now, in 2012, another batch was also recruited. 2016, another batch was also recruited. So those that started in 2007-2008, some dropped. 2012, some were recruited, some dropped. 2016, some were recruited, some so it looks it looked as if every four years, when every four years, if maybe any government comes into power or something, they try to recruit sanitation guards, and then it goes through this same process. They are not being paid, and some keep dropping. Now, the question you asked if they are going to uh continue or they are going to end everything or stop or put an end to the sanitation guards initiative or something. Recently we we we cited um an interview with the ministry, minister, minister of local government, chieftain religious affairs, and then he said that they are going to recruit another batch of sanitation guards.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 15:23

So looking at it, it looks like every four years they keep recruiting, and then you see in Ghana, I don't know. We will still get a lot of people who will sign up for it. Yes, who will sign up for it, and then they'll come and come and complain again that they are not being paid. So it's it's kind of I don't know, we don't know. As Kofi said, the contract is not being given out. We've requested more than once and still it hasn't been given out. So we don't really know what exactly the contract entails, and that one looks it it's it looks very fishy because if it is something in the in the public's interest, it is our money, yes, our money that is being used to pay these people, so we should have to account for it. We can ask you for you to give us the contract, but here lies the case the contract is not being given to us, so we don't know whatever we saw is management fee and then um allowances, yes. So uh they'll recruit, yes, because we've seen it. He said they're going to recruit another badge. So, what are you going to do about these ones who are complaining? So, is it that there is a new government?

SPEAKER_04 16:32

So, since they are for the former government, you're not going to give them their money, you're going to scrap them and then come in with a different um badge of sanitation guts or are they going to recruit another 4,000 or maybe just the number enough to bring it all up to another 4,000?

SPEAKER_06 16:50

So that one that one to come with a contract.

SPEAKER_04 16:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 16:53

And these same people, it's also our money that's going to be used to pay the same people. You see. So that that that that is it. They are going to recruit.

SPEAKER_04 17:03

Yeah. Well, Edmund, uh, the I'll come to you, and then I think this would be probably our last but one question. Zoom line has also not responded to your request for an interview. Um, as at the last check, have you finally heard back from them?

SPEAKER_00 17:18

No. Um, I think this was probably the was it the last story or probably the I think we've done three three stories in a series around this issue. And I think all of them we've sent letters to Zoom Line, but then we've never heard from them. And to sound a bit pessimistic, I don't expect to hear for to hear from them because it is seems to be a pattern. And it's unfortunate, but then we have not heard from them and I don't expect to hear from them.

SPEAKER_04 17:46

So to wrap up, from what we've said and discussed, it seems like the initiative is a laudable one. The municipal health officers seem to like it because it helps them. The workers are excited in a way, quote unquote, to do it, so long as they are paid. But the payment is the main barrier now. You as investigative journalists are trying to get to the bottom of it, at least to the contract also to see how you know this thing pans out, but you're not getting to the bottom. Is there another way to go around this um story to, I don't know, to get answers not only just for yourselves, but you know, even for these workers that you've spoken with, especially to know if probably they will get paid at some time before they are let go or before this new recruitment, do they have to all be dropped to come back? You know, there are so so many questions hanging. I'll start with you, um, Elizabeth. Do you have any other ideas you you want to run by how you want to do this, get more answers for the people?

SPEAKER_06 18:53

Okay, so I will I will say that we just need to advocate. Advocacy is what we need to do now to push the story, push it out there, make make make it loud, make it loud, let it get up there for them to know that this is what is happening on the on the ground. We've not seen the contract as I as I said. It could be that even in the contract, these people are supposed to receive more than the hundred cities because like a normal Ghanaian, like a normal Ghanaian shouldn't be paid hundred cities a month, hundred cities a month to not even not even a week, yeah, hundred cities a month. So if we advocate, if we if we come out loud, if you keep if we keep pushing, if we keep pressing on, it will go up there, and then maybe it can ginger the government to go through the contracts again. I I I I want to relate this to the YEA, the sweepers um um issue. Remember the sweepers were taking uh very low amount of money, and then when fourth estates through Manase was able to go through these contracts given to them, and all the advocates went up there, and then these contracts were looked to, they looked to the contracts, and then they revised it. Now these sweepers are even taking more, way more than their supervisors, who are the sanitation guards. You see, Ghana has to be clean. Ghana has to be clean, and because of this, the country is not clean because they're not even if they even go to work, they don't even do their job well. Because after all, you you won't pay me. So I won't worry myself to even do what if the motivation is not there for them to use to do their work. So I I think that advocacy will do Edmund.

SPEAKER_04 20:39

I know you already expressed your pessimism about Zoom Lion responding to your response uh to your requests and all, but uh as pertains to this story, are you still pessimistic or somewhat optimistic about um a positive outcome at some point?

SPEAKER_00 20:57

I think I'm trying to be uh optimistic, but then I think I have to we have to face reality, um, in the sense that still certain people when you do a story about them, nobody else picks it up. And you see, there's so much that we can do. We are not necessarily mainstream. So if mainstream media do not really see the need to pick up certain stories, no matter I I think no matter what you do, if the ordinary citizens do not show interest in it, it will only be other outlets hammering on it so that then the their audience will also realize that we have to think about what's happening. But for I don't want it to seem like it's only Zoom Lion, but there are other entities that that are like that, as long as we don't get um the kind of attention that needs to be given. To these kinds of stories, especially pertaining to people who are vulnerable. I think we're going to continue to get this sort of response. I think when was it? I think it was last week or so. Then I I I thought about writing, I think it was even this week, writing to the R Commission again to uh ask them why or what has happened to the request, because they they reached back to us and asked us if we've heard anything from the ministry. And as I know we've not heard anything from them. So we are we are waiting on them to give us a definitive answer as to their ruling with regards to the contracts, because it's not only just the citation guards program that we were following up on, there are other stories, there are other angles that we're following up on that all pertains to Zoom line and contracts that they've signed with the government that we've not necessarily seen a lot you know done. So I think the point is not for us not to relent. Um Elizabeth made a reference, Manasseh. It took, I think, more than a decade for Manasseh to get some sort of results, right? So as long as if we get information, we are journalists, we can concoct information, we can fabricate stuff. If you get information, you tell the stories. As long as the ministry is creating some sort of a boock to prevent us from telling the stories, we can't do anything. Uh, the only thing is for us to keep asking questions, and we're going to keep on asking the questions.

SPEAKER_04 23:30

And hopefully, at some point, we'll get some answers to the questions that we're asking. Elizabeth Tabnajin, um Edmund Wharton, thank you very much for your time with us on the podcast today. And that's it for today. My name is Nia Krofist Matabe. Join us again next time for another episode of the Fourth Estate podcast.