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The President of the Chamber for Local Governance (ChaLoG), Dr. Richard Fiadomo, has attributed the persistent sanitation challenges in the country to the lack of direct financial control by local assemblies over waste management service provider, ZoomLion Ghana Limited.
Speaking on JoyNews, Dr. Fiadomo described the current arrangement as deeply flawed. He explained that although the assemblies are mandated to award waste management contracts, they lack the authority to directly oversee payments to the contractor.
“The assemblies have been put in a very unique situation. Unique here being a very negative unique situation. The assemblies are the ones that have the power to award contracts for waste management. The assemblies have been asked to award their contracts to ZoomLion. But if the assemblies were to be the ones paying ZoomLion, we would not be seeing what we are seeing.” He said.
According to Dr. Richard Fiadomo, payments to ZoomLion are made directly from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), bypassing the local authorities. He dislcosed that this arrangement undermines the power of the assemblies to hold the contractor accountable for non-performance.
“Unfortunately, the assemblies have a contract with ZoomLion, but the assemblies do not have the power to pay ZoomLion. ZoomLion is paid from source as a DACF, District Assembly’s Common Fund, so whether the ZoomLion works for the assembly or execute the contract or not, they are paid at the blind side of the assemblies.” he stated.
He further stated that that if the local assemblies had full control over the financial aspects of their contracts with ZoomLion, they would be able to enforce better performance and ensure that sanitation duties were properly carried out.
“The truth of the matter is that a lot of the job that is supposed to be done by ZoomLion is not being done, and that is why we are seeing what we are seeing.
Source: Elvisanokyenews.net
