[ad_1]
Pharmacist and Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) member Kwame Sarpong Asiedu expressed concern over the apparent indecision over the fate of Minister of Health Kwaku Agyeman-Manu.
He said the failure of the ad hoc committee that investigated the purchase of the Sputnik-V vaccine to recommend sanctions against the Minister of Health as well as the impasse in parliament following a vote of no confidence against him , makes him cringe.
“And one of the things that I found interesting was that the minority was trying to call for a vote of no confidence against the minister and the majority had nothing to do with it. And the second vice president didn’t rule on it, and probably adjourned it until your kingdom comes, ”he said.
According to him, Parliament’s apparent lack of leadership on the issue, and its lack of political will to hold the minister to account for his many shortcomings, undermines the mandate Ghanaians have given them.
“The question I asked myself at that point is, what exactly are we aiming for as a people? Because it is a parliamentary committee. Parliamentarians hold trust mandates because we vote for them as our representatives. They represent us and we have put in place a senior executive who is the minister.
“They tell us the minister broke so many things. In fact, the minister by his actions lost money because now the contract has been repealed and we have paid for almost 150,000 doses of which we have received 20,000 doses. So now we’re missing 130,000 doses. But there is no recommendation as to what happens to someone who has engaged in this. There are gross violations of all laws! he said on JoyNews News File Saturday August 7.
He advised, however, to moderate accusations that the minister committed perjury for allegedly giving false testimony under oath before the ad hoc committee.
His reason was that following the hearing, a letter dated August 3, written by the legal adviser of the Ministry of Health seemed to imply that the payment of 50% of the amount of the contract for the Sputnik vaccines had been made. in the blind spot of the Ministry of Health. Minister.
This, he said, could indicate that the Minister, on the day of the hearing, indeed had no idea of any payment during his testimony before the committee.
He was quick to point out, however, that the said document left a lot to be desired.
“I’m not saying I believe it in its entirety, we’ve all seen the documents. The question I am asking myself is, based on this letter, who was in a hurry to make the payment and what was there for that person? Because we have seen the people who signed all of these letters. These are known figures, some of them are civil servants and the payment went through the Bank of Ghana.
“So if it turns out that the minister broke all these laws, can we say he committed perjury?” Or was he not in control of his mandate?
“Because I would also have a hard time seeing how such a payment could play out when the minister had told us all that he was so concerned about Ghanaians. And we were not in normal times and he was mainly acting to save us all, not knowing that the payment had been made when he was in such desperate need of vaccines, ”he said.
“So these are the gray areas for me and for the Parliament of Ghana to see all these documents, with all this information, the Parliament cannot make a decision and the Second Vice President sitting on the President cannot make a decision. , so I’m just wincing.
“That’s all I can say. I cringe. Because I don’t know who else can make a decision based on the information we have,” he concluded.
Source link
