Zipline drone services: Bawumia’s credibility on the line – Minta Akando

Member of Parliament for Juaboso and ranking Member of Health Committee Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has revealed startling details about a clandestine sweetheart agreement between the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Zipline Ghana.

Making the revelation on Monday’s edition of Metro TV’s flagship News and Current Affairs program Good Morning Ghana, Mr. Akandoh indicated that the state is bearing the project’s costs, which is in sharp contrast with what the Vice President Dr. Mahamud Bawumia said at an IMF organized conference in 2018.

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, explained at a programe organized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Accra that the government will not bear the cost of the $12.5 million medical drone service deal it has entered into with Zipline International Incorporated.

Dr. Bawumia said the government’s financial obligation to the project will not be catered for by the 2018 budget.
However, 6 years after Dr. Bawumia’s disclosure, Mr. Akandoh said evidence available to him and other members of the minority suggests that the Vice President has been economical with the truth.

“We are made to believe that the state was going to spend on Zipline project. Subsequently, I have sighted an agreement between the ministry of health and Zipline Ghana which indicates that, the state is paying for the activities of Zipline”

“Apart from the impression that was created by Dr Bawumia in the beginning, that the state will not be in any way going to pay anything in respect to the Zipline project, that Zipline would use its own fund from corporate Ghana, that’s not the case.

The 2024 National health insurance formula, has allocated not less than ¢70 million cedis for that purpose. We are as matter of urgency calling for a complete probe into the activities of Zipline” Mr. Akandoh told the host of the show Annie Afuah Ampofoh.

The Ranking for Health committee also highlighted clauses such as the “take or pay” provision, which obligates Ghana to pay a fixed amount regardless of service utilization, a practice he said is divergent from models in other jurisdictions like Tanzania and Rwanda where payments are per delivery.

For him, the Clause 6:3 of the new agreement in his possession is bad and not in the interest of the country, calling for a relook.

The Clause states that “the service fee, is a fix monthly amount not a pay delivery fee in exchange of the service fee health facilities receive unlimited access, up to available capacity limitation to delivery of any medical product within the delivery time commitment set forth above accordingly, the monthly service fee shall be paid to Zipline irrespective of wether the MOH fully utilizes the available capacity in any given month”

Moreover, Mr. Akandoh flagged Clause 6.6 of the agreement, which imposes compound interest penalties on overdue payments, potentially burdening the government further. He emphasized discrepancies between initial assurances by Vice President Dr. Bawumia, who suggested corporate funding for the project, and subsequent financial allocations from the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), amounting to millions of Cedis.

Mr. Akandoh called for urgent scrutiny into the Zipline project’s financial aspects, asserting the need for amendments to mitigate what he deems as detrimental clauses.

Furthermore, Akandoh expressed bewilderment over the agreement’s presentation to Parliament without prior consultation with the Health Committee. He called upon Dr. Bawumia to address the apparent contradictions in his statements and clarify the shift in funding responsibility.

“From the onset, Alhaji Bawumia told us corporate Ghana was going to fund the drone deal, that must be corrected and Alhaji Bawumia must come out with immediate effect to tell us what has changed.

We can’t always say the vice president is a liar and he goes free, No! he cannot take us for granted. At least he is the Vice President of the country. He owes us some kind of explanation.
He tells us one thing and and it turns out to be other almost all the time”

The agreement was between Zipline Ghana and the MOH, so we are surprised they brought it to parliament. Because we don’t know anything about it. Dr Bawumia has been silent on the matter and where ever he is, he must know his reputation is on the line, he insisted.