Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has issued a statement to formally announce that the refunded $2.47 million is available to his ministry to buy much needed COVID-19 vaccines.
The money was refunded by Sheikh Dalmook Al Maktoum, the middleman in the botched Sputnik V vaccine purchase.
The Sheikh was able to deliver only 20,000 out of the 300,000 doses, hence the $2.47 million is the balance for non-delivered Sputnik V vaccines.
“In all of my public life as Deputy Minister, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and now as Minister, I have been guided by the mandate to protect the public purse at all times and as Minister of Health to also safeguard Ghanaian lives especially during this pandemic.
“Whilst the circumstances surrounding this matter is well known, I am happy to confirm, that pursuant to our mandate to protect the National purse, His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum has indeed refunded the sum of Two Million Four Hundred and Seventy Thousand Dollars (US$ 2,470,000.00) back to the National Treasury.
“The money is now available to the Ministry of Health for the purpose of purchasing much needed vaccines to meet the President's target of 20 million vaccinations by the end of this year,†he wrote in a statement dated August 9, 2021.
 
The under-fire Health Minister was granted two-week leave last week amid calls for his dismissal for how he handled the vaccine purchase deal.
The leave, according to the Presidency, was to enable him to attend to some personal issues.
Earlier reports suggested that the Minister had resigned from his position, but the Health Minister in a Facebook post dismissed the report saying "kindly treat it with the utmost of contempt it deserves."