Members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), London South Branch have called on the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu to resign from his post with immediate effect or be given the boot by the President Nana Akufo-Addo over his failure to exhibit leadership, display of corrupt practices, failure to follow laid down approval processes and failing to account to the people in respect of the procurement of Sputnik V.
Recent events and revelations clearly indicate that the Minister and the Health ministry have not been honest with citizens of Ghana whose taxes government appointees use to manage the country. One such revelation is when the Minister of Health told the whole country that he had been trying to procure the Covid-19 vaccines through government to government with the Russians, but it turned out that he signed the agreement with middlemen in March, and in April approached the Russians through its Foreign Ministry, a clear display of dishonesty.
The Minister of Health had also indicated that it was the Sheikh who acted as the middleman who approached the Ministry of Health but recent revelations indicate that it was rather the Minister of Health who approached the Sheikh.
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The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu categorically denied that the government had made any payment when he appeared before the ad-hoc parliamentary committee set up to look into issues in respect of the purchase of Sputnik V. Once again it turned out that the minister was not being honest.
Before his appearance at the committee, the minister had paid 50% of the total contract sum of $5,700,000 which is $2,850,000 for the purchase of the vaccines to Messrs Al Maktoum. The minister had said that because of the situation that the country was in, because of the corona virus, he signed a deal with the Sheikh to purchase 3.4 million doses of vaccines at the peak of the pandemic. He stated that “to the best of my knowledge, we haven’t done any payment”.
The minister further justified why he did not inform parliament before signing the contract, stating that he was in a desperate and helpless situation in managing the COVID numbers.
According to the London South Branch of the NDC, “this is clearly a demonstration of someone who does not have the necessary leadership skills to deal with situations of such magnitude. There is precedence where parliament has been summoned under certificate of emergency, which begs the question why the minister did not see the need to involve parliament if not for other ulterior motives.
“We would want to hold the President Nana Akufo-Addo to his words when he said he shall protect the public purse by insisting on value for money in all public transactions. The President has displayed tendencies to shield his appointees in similar situations, making mockery of his promise to fight corruption,” they stated.
They said in a press statement that Ghanaians are watching as the time to get the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu to resign from office for full scale investigations to commence and possible prosecution effected is now.