The nine-member ad hoc committee of the Ghanaians parliament has found out that the Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu had lied and perjured himself when he said no money had been paid to the Arab Sheikh fraudulently contracted to serve as a middleman in the acquisition of some 3 million Sputnik V vaccines from Russia.
When he was summoned before the committee, Agyeman-Manu bold-faced denied that when he clandestinely signed off a contract with Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, the notorious cousin of the ruler of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to supply the vaccine, not a dime was paid upfront.
This is despite the fact that the Shiekh had already supplied some 20,000 of the 3.4 million vaccines stated in the contract.
However, the report of the committee found out that the Health Ministry, through the connivance of the Agyeman-Manu and Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta had paid upfront 50 percent of the initial contract phase to supply 300,000 vaccine doses.
The parliamentary committee quoted how Agyeman-Manu had already wired some us$ 2.85 million to the Arab Sheikh at the time he was misinforming Parliament that he had not paid any amount to the middleman.
Part of the report of the committee gleaned by the media reads: “According to the Bank of Ghana, in its letter of 31st March 2021, out of the total amount of US$5,700,000.00 owed to Sheikh Al Maktoum, an amount of US$2,850,000.00 representing 50% has been paid to him and that translates into a Cedi equivalent of GH¢16,331,640.00 converted at the exchange rate of US$1 to GH¢5.73.”
The Committee also 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 an intermediary, Messrs Al Maktoum.
The committee also determined that the agreements were entered into without prior approval by the Public Procurement Authority under Sections 40 and 41 of Act 663.
“The Agreements ensuing from the negotiations have been submitted to the PPA for ratification. ..Indeed, at the time of completing its work, PPA was yet to do the ratification.”
The committee’s report is a serious indictment on the integrity of the Health Minister and the Finance Minister.
Already, critics are calling for their prosecution for corruption and fraudulent dealings.
On the part of the committee, it had recommended that Finance Minister Ofori-Atta should be forced to retrieve the monies paid to the Arab Sheikh.
“The committee urges the Minister for Finance to take steps to recover the money due to 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,” the Committee recommended.
When he was dragged before the committee, the Health Minister admitted his ineptitude in signing the controversial Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine from Russia through a table-top contract agreement with Sheikh Al Maktoum.
When grilled further, Mr. Agyeman-Manu admitted he procured the vaccines on the blind side of the Ghanaian parliament because he was frustrated and not “thinking properly”. That is rather a convenient attempt to shirk responsibility for a deal that clearly smells of corruption.
The contract involved an inflated cost of US$19 per dose of the vaccine, and the Arab Shiehk was supposed to be for the supply of 3.4 million doses of the vaccine, which will cost a whopping US$ 61 million in total, instead of some US$ 40 million.
This is because Russia is selling the vaccines directly to foreign countries at US$ 10 million per dose and not the US$ 19 that the Ministry of Health was contracting out illegally to the Arab middleman.
Investigations by Whatsup News revealed that on March 9, 2021, the MoH had signed an agreement with Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktuom.
The 11-paged contract with the Dubai royal was signed by the same culprits at the MoH while the Sheikh himself and his Executive Secretary Diana Borovsysta counter-signed.
The Minister of Health dealt directly with the office of the Sheikh and went ahead to sign the contract without seeking parliamentary approval as required by law.
The Ministry claimed it had to take that route because of the urgency of the COVID-19 situation, however, they conveniently refused to disclose that the Sputnik V vaccine is traded directly by the Russian National Investment Fund (RDIF) through its subsidiary company called Human Vaccine LLC which had sold the vaccines to several other countries at US$10 per dose.
Whatsup News can report that the Russian company, Human Vaccine LLC had sold the same type of vaccine to countries like Slovakia and Hungary at US$ 10 per dose, reinforcing suspicions about the underhand dealings that had transpired in the trade with Ghana, and that some faceless individuals stood to personally benefit from the deal.
The contract for the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia to Ghana appears to have taken a similar path as the dubious contract given by the Akufo Addo administration to Frontier Healthcare Services to test every arriving passenger to the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) for COVID-19.
Whatsup News had broken the news on the Frontier deal when it found out that the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) had facilitated the entire through Professor William Kwabena Ampofo, a cousin of President Akufo Addo.