Refuse collectors not on strike

Mr Charles Parker-Allotey, Public Relations Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) on Monday said only five out of the fifteen private companies involved in the collection of refuse in the city went on strike during the weekend.

He said the rest of the companies did not even know of the impending strike action and went about doing their normal business.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, Mr Parker-Allotey said the AMA together with the Greater Accra Regional Minister had a meeting with the refuse collectors last week where they came to an agreement to pay them 50 million cedis every month.

He said he was, therefore, surprised that some of the companies went to block the streets over the weekend while their colleagues were busily working.

"We don't know their motive now because we had already reached an agreement with them" he said.

He said though the AMA owed the companies but it was not possible to pay off the debt completely at once.

Mr Parker-Allotey said the AMA generated an average of 35 billion cedis a month out of which 33 billion cedis was used on garbage collection in the city alone.