National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has said there seems to be over-concentration on Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu’s failings in the controversial Sputnik V vaccine agreement.
According to the chief NDC communications officer and private legal practitioner, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, is an equal culprit in the matter.
“Why are we over-concentrating on the Health Minister in the discussion about the botched Sputnik Vaccine Supply deal when the chief culprit is none other than the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, who without Parliamentary approval, paid a whopping 160 billion old Ghana cedis to the Dubai Sheikh.
“This is the same person who without any transparent selection process, engaged and paid his own company, Enterprise Insurance a whopping 110 billion old Ghana cedis as COVID-19 insurance premium for health workers.  Why is no one calling for the head of this corrupt Finance Minister? Is it because he is the cousin of the President?†he quizzed in a post on social media.
A parliamentary committee that probed the botched deal has found that an amount of $2,850,000 – which it says represents 50% of the contract sum of $5,700,000.00 – has been paid to Messrs Al Maktoum although the Minister said under oath that no payment had been made.
The amount which translates into the cedi equivalent of GH¢16,331,640 converted at the then prevailing exchange rate of $1 to ¢5.73, was for the cost of 300,000 vaccines.
However, Sheikh Al Maktoum presented Ghana with 20,000 doses of the vaccine instead of the initially agreed doses of 300,000 for the first batch.
Although the middleman has stated that he will refund the money he received for the vaccines he was unable to supply, a groundswell of calls for the Minister to be sacked have not subsided.
Sammy Gyamfi said in his post that the “reckless conduct of Ken Ofori Atta in paying millions of Ghana cedis for an unlawful Vaccine Supply contract makes it imperative that Parliament immediately conducts a bi-partisan probe into the entire government expenditure on COVID-19 and related matters.
Meanwhile, pressure group, OccupyGhana has also said called for broader investigations into the deal to find other culprits.
Read Sammy Gyamfi’s full post below.
Why are we over-concentrating on the Health Minister in the discussion about the botched Sputnik Vaccine Supply deal when the chief culprit is none other than the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, who without Parliamentary approval, paid a whopping 160 billion old Ghana cedis to the Dubai Sheikh.
This is the same person who without any transparent selection process, engaged and paid his own company, Enterprise Insurance a whopping 110 billion old Ghana cedis as COVID-19 insurance premium for health workers.
Why is no one calling for the head of this corrupt Finance Minister? Is it because he is the cousin of the President?
The reckless conduct of Ken Ofori Atta in paying millions of Ghana cedis for an unlawful Vaccine Supply contract makes it imperative that Parliament immediately conducts a bi-partisan probe into the entire government expenditure on COVID-19 and related matters. But even before that, #KenOforiAttaMustResign.
SAMMY GYAMFI ESQ.