• He said the health minister's continuous stay in office is catastrophy
• Bentil has called on CHRAJ to intervene due to Parliament’s inability to address the matter
Kofi Bentil, Vice President of IMANI Africa has called out the incompetence of the health minister Kwaku Agyemang Many and the Government of Ghana in the procurement of the ‘overpriced’ Sputnik V vaccine from one Sheik Al-Maktoum.
Bentil explained on JoyNews Monday that, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu’s continuous stay in office as the health minister is a catastrophic failure on the country since the nine-member ad hoc committee probing the procurement of the vaccine has established that 50 per cent of the negotiated contract sum was paid to the intermediaries.
He explained that structures from the Ministry of Health to the Bank of Ghana should have ensured that the situation did not occur.
“At least, the Committee has done a job and put out the obvious [....], that is the most important thing. Even Parliament was lied to and Parliament has not taken any serious action," Bentil said.
“I [have] said before that, maybe the action will follow, but for now, what I think Parliament should be minded to deal with is that if a minister can come before Parliament and under oath tell them something which is untrue and they let that person walk, they have totally undermined their own importance.
If a minister can do all the things that have been done and the person does not pay any serious price and the laws of this country do not have anything to say about it, then I’m not sure what kind of governance we are running. We have suffered a catastrophic failure and we need to get to the bottom of it.”
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been called upon to sack the health minister following the latter's admissions before the ad hoc committee that he breached the constitutional provisions with regards to Parliamentary approvals and the Public Procurement Act in his quest to procure Covid-19 vaccines.
But Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has asked that those who are calling for the head of the minister to roll should temper justice with mercy.
The IMANI Vice President is of the view that, “Parliament is the only institution where we have representatives with the necessary power to get into these matters and find us the answers.”
He, therefore, called on the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to intervene due to Parliament’s inability to address the matter.
“We don’t want somebody to go to CHRAJ or some other place. That will only happen if we think Parliament is failing in its oversight.
“So, I am watching and I think many people are watching what Parliament will do to try and salvage whatever is left of this system and try and make sure that under their watch, things like this will not happen again. It may be a good lesson for all of us, if there are loopholes, we solve them,” Kofi Bentil observed.
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