Agona West Assembly reviews service contract with Zoomlion

Agona Swedru, May 19, GNA - The Agona West Municipal Assembly has decreased its monthly service agreement of GHC25,000 with Zoomlion Ghana Limited to GHC20,000 to be able to resource its Environmental Health Department to perform its statutory duties.

The Assembly, which took the decision at its third Ordinary meeting at Agona Swedru, said this would ensure a sound and clean environment. Mr Felix Jacob Obeng-Forson, Municipal Chief Executive, (MCE) said members of the Assembly were dissatisfied with the performance of Zoomlion in the Municipality, especially Agona Swedru, and therefore recommended that their contract with the assembly be reviewed. Mr Abubakari Alhasan, Chairman of the Finance and Administration Sub-Committee of the Assembly, said the Assembly would have provided strong and effective supervisory role in through its financial management but it could not do so because payments to Zoomlion was effected at source from the District Assembly Common Fund.

He stressed that the service contract signed by the former MCE, in 2008, did not favour the Assembly because the refuse collection was in Agona Swedru alone without benefit to other towns in the Municipality. Mr Alhasan explained that the Assembly initially, allowed Zoomlion to use nine of its farm tractor refuse containers free of Charge, adding that, when they broke down Zoomlion failed to repair them.

He said the Assembly had realized that the company did not have a resident mechanic in the Municipality and later brought one from Cape Coast. Mr Alhasan said the monies being paid for these services were just too high for the assembly to sustain.

The Chairman said that the contract with Zoomlion never received the endorsement of the entire members of the Agona West Assembly. Mr Thomas Asante, Presiding Member of the Assembly, expressed regret that the Agona West Assembly was paying the highest service fee to Zoomlion Ghana Company in the Central Region. Zoomlion is a private waste management company.