The Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has bemoaned the fact that his image was shredded into tatters due to criticism for his involvement in the procurement of the Sputnik-V vaccines.
The Minister said this on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday during the debate on the 2022 Budget.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu’s comment was in reaction to a claim by the Ranking Member on Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh for a probe into the alleged misappropriation of the expenditure on Covid-19.
“Mr. Speaker I am so amazed. When I was rushing to get some vaccines to do vaccinations quickly to meet our development targets, I was found culpable of not coming to Parliament and I was lambasted to the extent that now I don’t have any image in this country,” he said.
The Health Minister noted that the government’s vaccine development plan made Ghana the first country under COVAS to receive vaccines.
“We did a vaccine development plan which Honourable Mintah Akandoh has got a copy. That is what made Ghana receive the first consignment of COVAX Vaccines in the whole world because we submitted our plan, number one.
Between April and August, Mr. Speaker I beg to say that we never received any vaccine from anywhere apart from the one I negotiated for and which we got the first 21,000 and even that the guy couldn’t supply which made us cancel the contract so what crime was this?” he asked.
Mr. Agyeman-Man added that the country’s vaccine development plan yielded significant fruits as it made it possible for vaccines to be available for vaccination of the populace.
According to him, Ghana anticipates not to waste any vaccines either procured or through donations.
Source: myjoyonline