Akufo-Addo won’t do anything about damning COVID-19 report – Akandoh

The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee and MP for Juaboso, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has said he does not see President Akufo-Addo acting on the damning COVID-19 report from the Auditor General.

There have been various infractions in the COVID-19 expenditure report by the Auditor-General's latest report which captured expenses between March 2020 and June 2022.

The Attorney General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, revealed a number of illegal and corrupt activities in government’s expenditure for COVID-19 during that period.

Some of the corrupt activities which were identified include payment of a total of US$607,419.02 out of US$4,049,460.12 for procurement of 26 ambulances which were not delivered, payment of unapproved ¢151,500 by the Information Ministry to its own staff as COVID-19 insurance, payment of $80m worth of vaccines by the government which was not delivered, amongst other infractions.

The report scrutinizes how monies received from the various institutions including the World Bank, AFDB, the European Union, and the Contingency fund summing up to GHC21.8 billion were utilized.

As anti-corruption crusaders and some CSOs have called for the persons cited in the report to be surcharged to deter other infractions, Mr Akandoh believes President Akufo-Addo will rather shield the culprits and sweep the matter under the carpet.

“As if those people are not living in Ghana with Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the President of the republic of Ghana, the clearing agent himself in the seat. What are you talking about, he will not do it. Is the Health Minister still not at post? What didn’t we reveal at the committee, is he not still at post?” he quizzed in an interview on Accra-based Starr FM.

“Is the Finance Minister still not at post? When members in his own party are saying that the man must be fired. In any serious jurisdiction and any serious or responsible President, the minister responsible for health wouldn’t have stayed for more than a second after the revelation but he is still at post. So, for me I think that it is one of the consequences of voting for the wrong person to steer the affairs,” he reiterated.

He explained further what the Minority can do in such situations while touching on their limitations as well.

“We are set out to do what we can. And don’t forget that we have limitations as members of Parliament. So, I wouldn’t want to raise anybody’s expectations when it comes to firing at all. Because the evidence is clear that the man himself has been refusing to clear people even when evidence is enormous or when everybody thinks that he will do the needful”, he stated.

New Deal

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has assured that efforts are being made to renegotiate the vaccine acquisition contract with the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) as recommended by the Auditor General’s Special Report on government’s COVID-19 expenditure.

However, it did not state emphatically if the renegotiation would facilitate the recovery of the outstanding balance of $81.87 million for the unsupplied vaccines.

In a statement issued by the ministry in Accra last Monday, it said COVID-19 was not over and the government would still require some vaccines for continuous vaccination as some countries around the world were experiencing fresh waves.