Minister for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu has disclosed that former Minister for Health Kwaku Agyemang-Manu will face criminal charges in the coming weeks over the controversial procurement of Sputnik V vaccines and related dealings with Frontiers Healthcare Service, in what is expected to be one of the most significant accountability cases linked to COVID-19 spending.
According to him, preparations for the prosecution are already at an advanced stage as authorities move to pursue legal action over decisions taken during the country’s pandemic response.
“The former Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang Manu will be charged in the coming weeks over the Sputnik V vaccine purchase and Frontiers Healthcare Services,” Kwakye Ofosu stated, on TV3 on Saturday, March 14. indicating that prosecutors are currently preparing formal charges.
The controversy dates back to 2021, when Ghana sought additional vaccine supplies during the global scramble for COVID-19 immunisations. Although the country had begun administering vaccines obtained through the COVAX facility and bilateral agreements, government officials pursued further doses to speed up the national vaccination campaign.
As part of that effort, the then Health Minister Agyemang-Manu entered into an agreement involving a United Arab Emirates intermediary, Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, together with a Ghanaian firm, S.L. Global, to supply millions of doses of the Russian-developed vaccine.
The deal soon triggered widespread criticism after it emerged that Ghana had agreed to purchase the vaccines through the intermediary at about $19 per dose, almost double the estimated $10 price at which the manufacturer was reportedly offering the vaccines.
An ad hoc committee of the Parliament of Ghana later determined that the agreements had been executed without the necessary parliamentary approval and without authorisation from the Public Procurement Authority (Ghana).
The committee further revealed that approximately $2.85 million, equivalent to more than GH¢16 million, had already been paid as part of the transaction even though the vaccines were never delivered.
In the face of mounting public pressure and parliamentary scrutiny, the government cancelled the deal in July 2021, bringing an end to the disputed procurement arrangement.
Separate concerns were also raised about the government’s contract with Frontiers Healthcare Services to conduct mandatory COVID-19 testing for arriving passengers at the Kotoka International Airport. Investigations indicated that while Ghana earned about $6.4 million from the arrangement, the private operator received roughly $80.6 million from the testing services.
CitiNewsRoom
