National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi says Finance Minister is also to be held liable for the botched Sputnik V vaccine.
This comes after health minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu during a public sitting of the investigative committee admitted that he acted on his own accord in procuring Covid-19 vaccines by contracting the Emirati middleman for the supply of the vaccines, which were at a unit cost of $19 instead of the factory price of $10.
A committee set to investigate the 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).
However, Sammy Gyamfi insists that Mr. Ofori-Attaalso released GHS16 million to Dubai-based Sheikh Al Maktoum without parliamentary approval, thus making him the “chief culprit” in the botched agreement.
“Why are we over-concentrating on the Health Minister in the discussion about the botched Sputnik Vaccine Supply deal when the chief culprit is none other than the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, who without Parliamentary approval, paid a whopping 160 billion old Ghana cedis to the Dubai Sheikh,” Sammy Gyamfi noted in a Facebook post.
“The reckless conduct of Ken Ofori-Atta in paying millions of Ghana cedis for an unlawful Vaccine Supply contract makes it imperative that Parliament immediately conducts a bi-partisan probe into the entire government expenditure on COVID-19 and related matters,” Sammy Gyamfi said.
GhanaFeed.com
He further stated that no money was ever paid to the Sheikh, Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum for the supply of Sputnik V vaccines to Ghana.
However, just a day ago he wrote a letter to the Sheikh demanding a refund of monies paid to the Sheikh who delivered only 20,000 doses of Sputnik vaccines out of the expected 300,000 doses.