- The Ministry of Health stated that attempts by the government to secure Sputnik V Vaccines at a unit cost of US$19 is not a rip off as being suggested in some quarters.
- The explanation follows a Norwegian newspaper (VG) report suggesting that Ghana is buying Sputnik V Vaccines from Russia twice the price.
- However, the minority chief whip Muntaka Mubarak in a memo to the speaker of parliament said the minister's action is contrary to article 191 of the country's constitution.
The Minority in Parliament is calling on the government to sack the Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang-Manu for undertaking international transactions without prior parliamentary approval.
The Minority chief whip Muntaka Mubarak in a memo to the Speaker of Parliament said the minister’s action is contrary to Article 191 of the country’s constitution.
The Minority also pointed out that signing a procurement agreement comes with the “prior approval of the Board of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) under sections 40 and 41 of the PPA Act, 2003 (663) as amended by Act 914 which constitutes a criminal offence under the law.”
Parliament on Wednesday adopted the report of the committee tasked to probe into the procurement of Sputnik V vaccines and although the report is yet to be made public, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has been justifying the minority’s call saying that “parliament constituted the by-partisan committee and then we’ve finished our work, we’ve brought the report and it has been debated and today the question has been put. It means that the report of the committee has been adopted by the House.”
“…All this while, we have been of the strong conviction that the President, Akufo-Addo would have done the needful but from all indications, it looks as though the President hasn’t heard anything and he hasn’t seen anything.
“…Therefore, we as members of parliament especially the minority side, by Article 82 we’ve filed a motion and we’ve got the required signatories to pass a vote of censure so that probably the minister will be asked to stay away from the ministry because we find him incompetent,” he stated.
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Securing Sputnik V vaccines for US$19 not a rip-off
The Ministry of Health has stated that attempts by the government to secure Sputnik V Vaccines at a unit cost of US$19 is not a rip off as being suggested in some quarters.
The explanation follows a Norwegian newspaper (VG) report suggesting that Ghana is buying Sputnik V Vaccines from Russia twice the price.
A statement issued and signed by Kwabena Boadu Oku-Afari, chief director of the Health Ministry, said the US$10 a dose is rather the ex-factory price, which is only obtained from Government-to-Government arrangements.
Sputnik V vaccines contact terminated
However, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu announced that the government has cancelled the controversial contract for the supply of Sputnik V vaccines through middlemen.
Appearing before a nine-member bi-partisan Parliamentary Probe Committee, the minister said Sheik Al Makhtoum and SL Global informed the government on 14 July 2021 that due to the global shortage of vaccines it is unable to honour the contractual agreement.
US$2.4 million refunded to Ghana
Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, the United Arab Emirates-based agent in Ghana’s botched attempt to procure Sputnik V vaccines, refunded the sum of US$2.47 million to the government of Ghana, being the “remaining amount for the non-supplied doses” of the vaccines.
Sheikh Al Maktoum was due to supply about 300,000 Sputnik V vaccines under an agreement signed with the government, but his outfit delivered only 20,000.
A parliamentary ad-hoc committee set up to investigate the Sputnik V vaccine deal had ordered the finance minister to retrieve the money.
In a letter addressed to the chief director of the Ministry of Health, Sheikh Al Maktoum said: “The requested amount of two million, four hundred and seventy thousand United States dollars (US$2.47 million) has already been refunded to the designated bank account as communicated by you.
Pressure mounts on Minister to resign
On August 9, the pressure group OccupyGhana called for the resignation or dismissal of the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, over the botched Sputnik V vaccine procurement contract.
Reacting to the recommendations of the Alexander Afenyo-Markin-led ad-hoc parliamentary committee set up to investigate the controversial Sputnik V vaccine deal, OccupyGhana said it does not believe the emergency situation created by the pandemic was sufficient reason for the Health Minister to breach the law.
“We do not think that the emergency situation created by the pandemic, and the urgency required, constituted sufficient reasons to bypass all of these steps that are required by law.
“As Parliament has indicated, it would have acted with the speed and urgency that the emergency required, had the request for approval been made to it,” OccupyGhana’s statement dated 9 August 2021 said.
Nicholas Brown
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