Kwaku Agyemang-Manu
Report reaching DGN Online indicates that Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu has taken two weeks leave due intense pressure mounting on him to resign following the embarrassing Sputnik V vaccine deal where over GHC16million was doled out a Dubai Sheikh.
Embattled Agyemang-Manu entered into a contract with a middleman without parliamentary approval to procure Covid-19 vaccine from Russia, allegedly causing financial loss to the state.
An ad hoc committee set by parliament found him culpable for breaching the procurement law as well as the constitution for entering into an international agreement without parliamentary approval.
Following his admission that he erred in the Sputnik V vaccine contract before the Parliamentary Committee, pressure has since been mounting on the minister to resign.
Pressure group, OccupyGhana, the Minority Caucus in Parliament, IMANI’s Kofi Bentil, and Private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu have been at the forefront, calling for the head of the Minister.
Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, maintains that his side will not back down on their push to get the health minister out.
“We will not abandon this matter. If the President does not revoke the appointment of the Minister for Health, we will request him through a vote of censorship to consider that matter”.
Already the Dubai middleman behind the supply of the 300,000 doses of Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccines to Ghana, Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum has accepted to refund $2,470,000 paid to him, after Kwaku Agyeman-Manu wrote to him to refund the difference in the botched deal.
In response to the Minister’s letter, the Dubai Sheikh in his letter sighted by DGN Online, says he will refund the money and asked the Ministry to confirm the difference for onward payment.
The agreement for the supply of Sputnik V vaccines with Sheikh Al Maktoum who acted as a middleman has generated controversy in the country.
After presenting Ghana with 20,000 doses of the vaccine instead of the initially agreed doses of 300,000 for the first batch, the deal was subsequently terminated.
Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu requested a refund of money paid in a letter addressed to him, a member of the ruling family of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and entitled, “Refund To The Government of Ghana the Balance of 300,00 Doses of Sputnik V Vaccine.”
It formally requested the refund of the remaining amount for the non-supplied doses, which should be the total amount paid to Sheikh Al Maktoum’s office.
The refund will be minus the amount due for the 20,000 doses already supplied to the country by Sheikh Al Maktoum.
The request is in response to an earlier e-mail dated July 25, 2021, in which it was affirmed that on April 13, 2021, funds were transferred into Sheikh Al Maktoum accounts as fifty percent (50%) advance for the initial batch of 300,000 doses for $19 per dose.
In a letter, the Health Minister who is under intense pressure to resign stated “By this letter, I also wish to formally request for the refund of the remaining amount for the non-supplied doses, which should be the total amount paid to your office, minus the amount due for the 20,000 doses you already supplied, in line with your earlier e-mail dated 25th July, 2021, in which it was affirmed that on the 13th April, 2021, funds were transferred into your accounts as fifty percent (50%) advance for the initial batch of 300,000 doses,” part of the letter read.
A report from parliament’s Ad hoc committee investigating the matter indicted the Health Minister of failing to seek parliamentary approval among others.
Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang Manu in July this year admitted that he independently approved the purchase of a $64.6 million contract for Sputnik V Vaccine from Russia out of frustration.
He told the Ad Hoc Committee tasked to probe the controversial Sputnik V vaccines procurement agreement that accumulated frustrations to procure the vaccines for the country compelled him to disregard parliamentary approval as required by Article 181 5 of the 1992 constitution.
In the minister’s justification, he had plans to formally seek parliamentary approval after independently approving the $64.6 million contract.
BY Daniel Bampoe