Veteran journalist, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, has urged the government to make full disclosure about all the contracts it has signed to procure coronavirus vaccines.
The Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper said Saturday that government rids itself of accusations of underhand dealings with middlemen, for instance, in the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines if contract details are made public.
“I still haven’t heard very clear disclosure as to which groups and how many groups we are dealing with. I would want the government to make that important.
“We are also told about contacts that we made with some governments. I thought it was only Russia but we are now being told about the US, the UK and Europe. Information flow – put it out there. Let people know,†he said on the Newsfile news analysis show.
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His comments follow revelations by a foreign newspaper that Ghana and other countries were procuring the Sputnik V vaccine doses at above-market prices because of the use of middlemen.
The Norwegian VG newspaper said the government of Ghana had struck a deal with a middleman with a shady background to buy the Russian-produced vaccines at $25 instead of $10 per dose.
The government responded with the clarification that it was buying the vaccines at $19 per dose and not $25. It also justified relying on middlemen on grounds that attempts to procure the vaccines through direct government-to-government deals with Russia failed.
The Ministry of Health further stated that the $19 price tag on the Sputnik V dose is the best it could negotiate due to added cost of transportation and other charges.
Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu also said recently that the government is compelled to rely on middlemen because it is determined to procure the vaccines quickly for the nationwide vaccination exercise.
Kweku Baako said on Newsfile that the lack of public knowledge about the deals is partly to blame for the flak government received following VG’s publication two weeks ago.
“Last week, I asked for full disclosure on agreements and contracts that we have entered into. I guess we are dealing with multiple groups. It is important that the public knows. Which groups are we dealing with? What agreements have we entered into? What contracts have we signed? And what are the objectives? Who are they? It helps so that when we are dealing with the issues we deal with each one on its own merits. Otherwise, we box it up and there isn’t any way forward,†he said.
The Minority in Parliament has, meanwhile, moved for a bi-partisan probe into the controversial Sputnik V deal, claiming that the Ministry of Health may have breached aspects of the Constitution that mandates it to bring international transactions to the House.