The Minority is demanding the resignation of Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu for engaging in an overseas transaction without first seeking clearance from Parliament.
Muntaka Mubarak, the Minority Chief Whip, indicated in a Memo to the Speaker on Wednesday that the Dormaa Central MP’s behaviour is in violation of Article 191 of the 1992 Constitution.
As a result, the Minority wants the appointing authority to fire him.
Signing a procurement agreement without “prior approval of the Board of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) under sections 40 and 41 of the PPA Act, 2003 (663) as amended by Act 914, which constitutes a criminal offence under the law,” according to the Minority.
The Minority said, considering that “the above conduct, being in direct breach of the Constitution and Laws of passed by this honourable House, the Health Minister be removed from office as a Minister by a vote of censure passed in accordance with Article 82 of the Constitution.”
Following disclosures in the report of the Parliamentary Committee that investigated the Sputnik V vaccine deal, pressure has mounted on the Minister to resign.
The Committee entrusted with investigating the sale discovered that $2,850,000 (50 percent of the contract total of $5,700,000) was paid to Messrs Al Maktoum, despite the Minister’s declaration that no payment had been made “to the best of my knowledge.”
The cost converts into the cedi equivalent of GH16,331,640 when converted at the then-current exchange rate of $1 to 5.73 for 300,000 vaccines.
This comes after the Committee entrusted with investigating the sale discovered that $2,850,000 (representing 50% of the contract total of $5,700,000) was paid to Sheikh Al Maktoum, despite the Minister’s declaration that no payment had been made “to the best of my knowledge.”
Following the publication of the report, some prominent persons demanded Mr Agyeman-Manu’s resignation.
Martin Kpebu, a private legal practitioner, likewise believes the Minister “should have gone a long time ago.”
“You see that the report has made matters worse for him,” he explained.
Kweku Baako Jnr, Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, believes the Minister to resign.
“If he is minded to… resign, I will endorse it; I will vote for him if he were to do the honourable thing and just quit. You cannot defend this.”
On Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Kofi Bentil alleged that Mr Agyeman-Manu violated every procurement procedure and constitutional obligation regarding the contract.
As a result, he believes the Health Minister should be fired.
Minority demands that the Health Minister be fired because of the botched Sputnik V contract.
However, in an interview with Adom FM last week, the Health Minister detailed what happened during the procurement of the Sputnik-V vaccine.
According to him, the nation desperately needed vaccines, despite the fact that the commodity was rare on the global market.
He also stated that the decision was difficult, but given the number of lives lost, he had to make a decision after consulting with his technical team.
“When the issue of Sputnik-V came up, in fact, there was a decision to go in for more vaccines because there was a scarcity of vaccines as many countries had closed their borders.
“What encouraged us to buy those vaccines was that the same vaccine was sold at $38 elsewhere, so considering that, we thought it was cheap,” he explained on Adom FM’s Burning Issues.
Mr. Agyeman’s Manu refuted charges that his company turned down better bids in favor of this one.
“It was through the search for the vaccines that some other people offered us some, but it was some kind of take and pay which you would still have to pay even when you haven’t received yet”.
“As of now, WHO has chosen two countries which have managed the Covid-19 effectively and so many are chasing me to assist them in controlling Covid-19 just as we were able to control ours.”
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SOURCE: myjoyonline
