Lock-up Global Fund Commodities: Stop TB Partners want Procurement Supply process Audited

Chairman of the Stop TB Partnership in Ghana, Eric Kwabena Agbozo, has reiterated the call for an audit into the procurement supply management and other processes leading to the languishing of the Global Fund essential commodities at the Tema port for more than 12 months.

In an exclusive interview with Ghananewsonline.com.gh, Mr. Agbozo said though the single TB drug container among the locked-up containers has been cleared and would be available at the various facilities for TB patients across the country, there is a need for a careful audit of the whole process to prevent the re-occurrence of the Global shame that has befallen the country.

“The audit will help us to know exactly where the issues are and what barriers led to the delay, so it doesn’t happen again,” he stated.

The Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanism in Ghana has confirmed that almost all the essential health commodities locked up at the port have been cleared, as assured by the Health Minister Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye.

Interim Chairman of the CCM Ghana, Ernest Ortsin Amoabeng, says their checks at the Central Medical stores at Spintex and the Imperial Health Sciences (IHS) at Tema on Monday revealed that most of the containers have been cleared.

He assured that the medications had already been transported to the regional stores for distribution to the hospitals. He was hopeful that the remaining containers will be cleared entirely in two weeks.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Stop TB Partnership – Mr Agbozo has noted that an audit to sanitize the system will revitalize Ghana’s relationship with donors of the commodities and reinvigorate confidence in lending medical support to the country.

He indicated that their checks at the port revealed a third-party arrangement that require payment of monies by the government to private organizations for their roles and services in the clearing of the commodities, hence the need for an audit to clear all these hurdles to improve access to these drugs and other essential items donated by the Global Fund.

Mr. Agbozo further affirms the commitment of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the sector to finding a lasting solution to the disgrace experienced by the country by establishing an endowment fund that can be utilized for the clearing of these commodities as swiftly as possible instead of waiting on the government.

It would be recalled that the Minister of Health, Dr. Okoe Boye assured Ghanaians that his outfit will clear the back lock of medical supplies donated to Ghana in two weeks.

This assurance was in response to plans by health-centric CSOs to stage a demonstration for the release of critical medicines for diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV which were yet to be fully cleared at the port.

”We are committed to getting the containers out, and for me personally, irrespective of the bureaucracies involved with government and all that, I have given myself two weeks. In two weeks, I myself will not be encouraged if there are two more or one more containers left at the port,” Minister Okoe Boye stated.

“In fact, and this one you can take it from me. If by two weeks we still have containers at the port, you will not see me, I will be sitting rather at the port. I will sit at the port with them until everything comes out,” he assured Ghanaians and true to his words, the containers are cleared to the admiration of many.

By Derick Botsyoe || ghananewsonline.com.gh