[ad_1]
Deputy Majority Leader Afenyo Markins said the ad hoc committee set up to investigate the botched Sputnik vaccine deal believes Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu acted in good faith.
“Now we [Parliament’s Ad hoc Committee] did our job, we think he had good intentions in good faith, ”he told the Joy News host. News file, On Saturday.
According to him, the minister has done what he could to guarantee vaccines for Ghanaians in these dangerous times of a pandemic when cases of Covid-19 have increased with deaths.
“Where I am sitting the man tells his story that at one point the death rate was increasing, the infection rate was increasing, government-to-government sources, the bilateral agreement put in place for the vaccine supply had failed us. . They were talking about a six-month delay, he had to act.
“He was to make the vaccine available for Ghanaians to be vaccinated. In the process, he claims to have relied heavily on the committee that had been set up to manage this Covid-19 situation, ”he said.
The defense by the member for Effutu of the former chairman of the Parliament’s public accounts committee comes after several calls for the minister’s resignation.
According to the report of the ad hoc committee set up to investigate the botched deal, Dormaa’s central minister violated all procurement processes and constitutional requirements regarding the contract.
Currently, the minister is on two weeks’ leave.
But defending the health minister on Newsfile, over the violation of Sputnik’s supply agreement, Mr Markins said that “the minister never said he hired the Russian government and when it failed, he decided to rely on private sources, he never said that “.
According to him, the main consent of the committee was to be reimbursed for the money paid for the doses not provided and this was done.
“As a committee, our primary consent was for amounts paid for doses not provided and we made it clear in our recommendation that steps should be taken to reimburse in order to recover those funds. As we speak we have correspondents, the minister has been frank in bringing us these correspondents, all the letters that have been addressed to them, the request for bank accounts and all that and we have all the information that at the time where we are talking, the Bank of Ghana special collection is upon receipt of this amount, the Swift is there for everyone to verify.
The chairman of the Parliament’s ad hoc committee further replied to Mr Kpebu’s comment on the health minister’s lie about the payment made during his appearance in the Sputnik vaccine investigation said:
“The Minister was adamant that border health services were not provided by the Ministry of Health.
“As a committee, we went deeper and finally the proof was that it was done by the Aviation Department, adding that the Aviation Department brought evidence of the contract, letters to PP and all that, so you can’t have a statement against him that he couldn’t give us proper answers when he appeared before us.
Source link
