The Committee that probed Ghana’s Sputnik V vaccine deal has urged the Minister for Finance to take steps to recover the money due
the Republic in respect of the amount of US$2,850,000.00 (Cedi equivalent of GH¢16,331,640.00).
The amount being the cost of the Sputnik-V vaccines that were proposed to be procured.
The Committee, by consensus, recommends to the House to adopt this Report.
The Committee in its report 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 report said: ”As already stated, the Committee found that the Ministry of Health did not comply with the requirements of Article 181(5) of the Constitution in respect of its Agreement with Messrs Al Maktoum. The Minister said that he did that because of the exigencies of the time when COVID-19 posed public health crisis with highest fatalities and there was urgent global search for vaccines and at that material time the Agreements were signed, all government to government sources had failed as the bilateral sources had communicated to the Ministry that they would only be able to deliver in August 2021. Suffice to say that the bilateral sources did not include Russia since Ghana had no such arrangement with Russia.
The Agreements ensuing from the negotiations have been submitted to the PPA for ratification, the Committee determined that the Agreements were entered into without prior approval by PPA under Sections 40 and 41 of Act 663. Indeed, at the time of completing its work, PPA was yet to do the ratification.
The Committee urges the Minister for Finance to take steps to recover the money due 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.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com
