Health Minister has to be sanctioned not prosecuted – Vitus Azeem

Anti-Corruption campaigner, Vitus Azeem has supported calls for sanctions to be meted out against Ghana’s Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu following alleged procurement breaches in the Sputnik V contract.

According to him, the Minister used to be on the Public Interest and Accountability Committee and grilled people for similar offenses, and needs to be held responsible for actions he knew were unacceptable.

“I support calls that some sanctions should be meted out against him but not necessarily prosecution. We need to know if the money paid out for the Sputnik V deal is retrievable or not,” he told Sefah-Danquah on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show.

He argues the excuses being given by the Minister as intolerable. “No matter the excuses he gives, I don’t think his actions are acceptable. Even if it was an emergency action, he should have consulted the Attorney General but he refused to. His explanation is not convincing.”

Vitus Azeem believes the Minister might not have sanctioned payments for the vaccine or he authorized it. “But again that will mean he lied to parliament. It is obvious sanctions need to be meted out against him unless he will come out with the truth.”

On his accord, calls for the Minister’s sack may not be realized because President Akufo-Addo is not one to easily fire his Ministers. “And I don’t believe this transaction was carried out without the President’s knowledge. The Minister was wrong to have carried out such a solo act and needs to take the necessary punishment that comes along with it,” he reiterated.

Background

His comments come after the Parliamentary Committee that was tasked to probe the contract said in its final report that the Agyemang-Manu should have contacted and engaged with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health on the Sputnik V contract even if it was an emergency situation.

The Committee in its final report said “The point must also be made that, even if it was an emergency, the Minister should have found time to communicate effectively and engage with the Committee on Health.

“The extensive engagement would have saved the Ministry from the negative reactions from the citizenry and some Members of Parliament.”

Mr. Agyemang-Manu has earlier admitted before the committee that he did not do due diligence before contracting with the private office of one Emirati Sheikh, H.H Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum for 3.4 million doses of Sputnik V at a unit cost of $19.

“Those were not normal times and I was seriously in a situation that didn’t make me think properly, the way you think that now I will actually abreast myself with the situation”, he told the committee Monday, July 19.

The deal was uncovered by a Norwegian journalist, Markus Tobiassen, who works with tabloid Vergens Gan, to have been inflated by some $9 citing the ex-factory price of the vaccine as $10.

The Minister said the whole deal was reached out of desperation and frustration on the part of his office, the reason he did not seek parliamentary approval for the international transaction as is required under Article 181 (5) of the Constitution of Ghana 1992.

“February, 78, March 56, there were the numbers and if you, any of us here were the Health Minister at the time I think you might have taken certain decisions that on hindsight or going forward you may not have done those things This was the environment that I found myself in. Out of desperation, frustration, so many things and people were dying we needed to protect our citizens.”

The Parliamentary investigative committee has therefore recommended to the Ministry of Finance to take steps to recover the money due to the Republic in respect of the amount of US$2,850,000.00 (Cedi equivalent of GH¢16,331,640.00) being the cost of the Sputnik-V vaccines that were proposed to be procured.

The Committee says it found that the Ministry of Health did not seek approval from the Board of PPA under Sections 40 and 41 of Act 663 before signing the Agreements.

The Ministry, however, applied for ratification under Section 90(3) (c) of the Act. Which has still not been granted.

The Committee also found that PPA has not concluded its investigations into the matter.