The Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has taken a two-week leave, which started last week.
According to the media, the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare permitted him.
There have been rumours that Mr Agyeman-Manu has resigned, but the presidency have denied this, saying he is on leave.
Meanwhile, pressure is rising on Ghana’s Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, to resign as a result of discoveries in the Parliamentary Committee’s report on the Sputnik V vaccination deal.
Private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu also says the Minister “should have gone a long time ago.”
According to Kofi Bentil in an interview, he stressed that the Health Minister breached every procurement process and constitutional requirements about the contract, and because of that, he must be sacked.
On Monday, the Minister wrote to Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum with whom he signed a deal to procure Sputnik V vaccines, to refund the money for the non-supplied doses.
According to the letter, the Dubai-based businessman agreed to refund $2,470,000 paid by government to supply 300,000 doses of Sputnik Covid-19 vaccines.
“The Private Officer of His Highness, per the correspondence, has honourably agreed to refund an amount of $2,470,000 being the balance left on the 50% advance payment of $2,850,000,” portions of the Health Ministry’s letter to the Finance Ministry read.
This comes after the Committee entrusted with investigating the agreement discovered that Messrs Al Maktoum had been paid $2,850,000 (approximately half of the contract total of $5,700,000) despite the Minister declaring no payment had been made “to the best of my knowledge.”
The amount which translates into the cedi equivalent of GH¢16,331,640 converted at the then prevailing exchange rate of $1 to ¢5.73, was for the cost of 300,000 vaccines.
This comes after the Committee tasked to investigate the deal, found that the amount of $2,850,000 (representing 50% of the contract sum of $5,700,000) has been paid to Sheikh Al Maktoum despite the Minister claiming no payment had been made “to the best of my knowledge.”
