Multibillion contract agreement between City Hall, Ghana firm flawed, technical team rule

Despite the abrupt death incident of a technical team leader, alleged tendering flaws and a stoppage court order surrounding the controversial multibillion solid waste management contract awarded to a previously World Bank blacklisted Ghanian firm, Zoomlion Ghana Limited by the Nairobi County government, a technical team reviewing the contract agreement has ruled that it is flawed, The Informer Media Group can authoritatively reveal.

Shockingly, the team found out that agreement between Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja’s led administration and Zoomlion lacks commercial and financial safeguards thus granting the foreigner a blank cheque.

They also warned that lack of dedicated funding sources may expose the project to operational and financial risks in a tender in which Zoomlion was the only bidder.

Further, the notification of award sent to Zoomlion is in US Dollars.

“Several commercial and financial safeguards require strengthening. In Particular, the absence of provisions addressing ISPO arrangements, escrow mechanisms, clearly defined management fee schedules, guaranteed minimum waste supply and dedicated funding sources may expose the project to operational and financial risks,” the report reads in part bearing all the hallmarks of a jinxed deal right from inception.

Massive procurement flaws in the tendering process have also been cited.

“The law regulating this kind of project is the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Act 2021 governing the under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Directorate under the National Treasury since it involves aspects of collection, financing construction of waste collection plant as opposed to the normal contracts regulated by the Public Procurement and Disposal Act (PPDA) 2015. Also, the nature of the tender should be an international tender to attract a firm from Ghana with a minimum advertising period should be at least 21 days to allow participation,” a senior official in the National Treasury observed.

Also, on eligibility criteria under section 1.3 of the tender document, subsection (ii) requires that potential bidders should not have been blacklisted.

“Individual or consortium organisations submitting response must meet the qualification criteria below; ii). Should not have been blacklisted or debarred from participating in tenders by any national/ state government agencies or autonomous bodies or Institutions,” the tender document provides.

However, we have since established that in 2013 the World Bank debarred Zoomlion Ghana Limited and two affiliates, Accra Compost Plant and Zoom Alliance for two years after finding that the company had paid bribes to facilitate contract execution and processing of invoices for the World Bank-financed Emergency Monrovia Urban Sanitation Project in Liberia.

This meant Zoomlion and its subsidiaries were temporarily barred from bidding on any World Bank-funded contracts worldwide.

Zoomlion acknowledged the misconduct and entered into a Negotiated Resolution Agreement with the Bank, accepted responsibility, and agreed to strengthen compliance with integrity standards, leading to its eventual removal from the blacklist in 2015.

Back home in Ghana, Zoomlion’s relationship with state agencies also drew heavy scrutiny.

Investigative reporting and Ghanian Auditor-General audits uncovered multiple questionable contracts, including a Youth in Sanitation Module under the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), where Zoomlion was paid from public funds while the actual service delivery and value for money were widely disputed.

Some whistleblowers and analysts argued that Zoomlion’s dominant position and sole sourcing for sanitation contracts created opportunities for inflated payments and a lack of competition or accountability in the sector.

In addition, the Ghanian Auditor-General characterised certain contracts between Zoomlion and state bodies as unjustifiable, noting instances where similar services were already covered under existing arrangements yet additional funds were paid. Police investigations were at one point launched into dubious fumigation agreements.

On February 16, 2026, just two days after our initial exposé on the much-contested bid whose tendering process has been contested as “inherently flawed”, the late Engineer Charles Ngugi Gathara, then serving as the chairman of the tender evaluation committee arrived at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) ready to lead a technical delegation on a strategic mission to Accra, Ghana, aimed at studying integrated waste management systems.

However, that was never to be.

After reportedly having some refreshments at the airport lounge alongside his colleagues, Gathara started vomiting and collapsed.

He was later pronounced dead while his juniors boarded the plane for Accra, Ghana, leaving behind their dying colleague fighting for his life.

He was laid to rest on Friday, February 27, 2026 at his Gathondo village in Embu County. He died aged 49 years.

Until his death, Ngugi was serving substantively as Deputy Director, Water and Sanitation Department at the Nairobi County but was appointed to chair the evaluation committee including the benchmarking tour to Zoomlion’s processing plants, transfer stations, and recycling facilities in Accra.

Among those in the Ghana trip were Walter Omwenga (Deputy Director, Environment and Final Disposal), Frida Nzomo (Procurement), Maurene Njeri (CEC, Green Nairobi), Pius Tanui, John Paul Malawi (Director for Environment), Hibrahim Otieno (Chief Officer, Environment).

The team departed for benchmarking in Ghana six days after awarding the tender to Zoomlion before conducting due diligence on their capacity and physical verification.

“This is the international bid document that went out worldwide tender advertised publicly on both on PPIP and county websites for everyone to apply. To conclude a procurement process there is something called due diligence, meaning you must physically ascertain that the bidder has the capacity presented in his/her documents before a contract is signed once satisfied that he/she has capacity to deliver This is the reason why the Kenyan team as indicated in your article are travelling to Ghana,” Omwenga wrote back to The Informer Media Group following our initial exposé and before his team left for Ghana after the tender award had already been awarded to Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

In another glaring procurement flaw, in the bid document, despite inserting a veiled clause that the request for proposal is “open to all qualified and interested tenderers both local and international” on page 7, item 3 of the bid document, as a requirement of the law for both local and international tenders, the initials of Open National Tender (ONT) or Open International Tender (OIT) for international tenders respectively are glaringly missing.

Open international tenders are done only when there is insufficient capacity locally also by ensuring the tender has a margin of preference to cushion local companies.

“Tendering will be conducted under Request for Proposal method using a standardized Request for Proposal document and is open to all qualified and interested tenderers both local and international. Bidders may submit their bids as a consortium as per the tender data sheet,” the tender bid reads in part.

Also, insiders contend that a project that takes above five years requires public participation and approval by the Nairobi County Assembly before implementation by the executive upon cabinet adoption and inclusion of recommendations by the Assembly.