Akandoh wants Ofori-Atta to resign over botched Sputnik V vaccine deal

• The Juaboso MP wants Ken Ofori-Atta to resign over Sputnik V vaccine procurement

• He indicated that the Finance Minister approved and released the money for the procurement

• Pressure is on Kwaku Agyeman-Manu for breaching procurement processes

Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Member of Parliament for Juaboso, has said it won’t be bad for Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister, to resign over the botched Sputnik V vaccine procurement.

He explained, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu should not go alone but he must go with Ken Ofori-Atta because the latter approved the release of GHS16 million to be paid to Sheikh Al Maktoum.

“For me, based on where I sit, if we leave the public purse in the hands of the Minister responsible for Finance, we will not save anything as a country,” Akandoh said on Citi FM.

When asked if Ken Ofori-Atta must resign, he replied in the affirmative; “that will not be bad at all.”

The member of the nine-member bipartisan ad-hoc committee that probed the deal maintained, “the [Health Minister] is the genesis of the whole matter, so the law must take its course. What will help Ghana is what we are looking for. If a Minister who is at post tells a committee that he couldn’t think properly in the face of a pandemic, that is why we have this issue at hand. So, it is in his own interest to resign.”

The Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has come under intense criticism for breaching procurement processes while trying to secure Sputnik V vaccines for Ghana.

This is because Kwaku Agyeman-Manu confessed before the committee that he signed the agreement with the middlemen without parliamentary or cabinet approval. He also did not seek approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) prior to finalising the agreement with the middlemen, although the Attorney General is said on the record to have advised against the deal.

The ad-hoc bipartisan parliamentary committee that probed the deal recommended among other things that the finance minister takes steps to recover over $2 million paid to Sheikh Ah Makhtoum for undelivered vaccines.

The Sheikh has in response to a letter from the health minister requesting a refund agreed to pay the money.

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