-Letter To His Conspirator Dubai Sheikh Exposes Him Further
An August 2, 2021 letter written by Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman Manu to retrieve some US$ 2.85 million from Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, the notorious cousin of the ruler of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has exposed him [the minister] further for blatantly perjured himself to the Ghanaian Parliament.
“I wish to formally request for the refund of the remaining amount for the non-supplied doses, which should be the total amount paid to your office,” Agyeman Manu wrote on August 2, 2021 in a leaked letter referenced MOH/OM/L11/71/21.
“The clause for refund is in line with clause 8, 2 of the Agreement which states that,” the letter stated, as the minister demanded a refund for US$2.85 paid into the accounts of the Sheikh for the supply of the initial batch of vaccines totalling 300,000.
However, in late July 2021, Agyeman-Manu faced a nine-member ad hoc committee of Parliament and told them to their faces that no money had been paid to the Dubai Sheikh.
The lawmakers were probing the fraudulent nature in which the health ministry contracted some 3.4 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccines to Sheikh Al Maktoum, but the Minister told the committee not to worry because not a dime was paid to the Sheikh.
When he met the parliamentary probe, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu said that no monies were paid upfront, and that the Letters of Credit issued by the Ministry were done on sight and that the supplier [the Sheikh] could not have drawn on them until the Ministry had informed the Bank that it had received the vaccines.
However, the Shiekh only supplied 20,000 doses of the vaccines and not 300,000 as contained in the Agreement as the first batch of deliveries. Notwithstanding this, the ministry paid 50% of the cost of the 300,000 vaccines upfront.
The Committee in its report on the dubious transaction admitted that Agyeman-Manu 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 deep scandal and serious indictment of the minister in the deal, has caused a wide cross-section of the Ghanaian public and experts in various fields to call for the resignation and criminal prosecution of Agyeman-Manu.
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 Maktoum.
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.