General News of Friday, 21 December 2018
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
2018-12-21
Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu
The Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association Humanitarian Emergency Logistics Program (MAMA-HELP) has confirmed to the Presidency that it, as part of engagements with the Health Ministry, proposed to provide free medical facilities and medical equipment including drones to the country at no cost but had their offer ‘rejected’.
This comes after questions were raised regarding a supposed request made by the Health Ministry in 2015 to the Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association in the USA, for assistance to build 10 regional emergency medical clinics with ambulances, provide the country with two helicopters for medical supplies, together with drones for the supply of vaccines and samples to prevent the outbreak of Ebola and other infectious diseases.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was quizzed by Accra-based Atinka TV’s Bismark Brown, during a meeting with pressmen at the Jubilee House, about the said proposal. The journalist also sought to check the authenticity of facts as stated in a 2015 Ministry Health report prepared by Dr. Afisah Zachariah, then Director of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Health Ministry.
From his response however, Mr. Akufo-Addo appeared to be oblivious of the issues that were raised.
“I have a major problem in answering the first question, I’m not familiar with the document you read out, its contents, this is the first time I’m hearing it, I didn’t know such a large document had been evolved in the past government, I had no idea about any of the things you are saying and these people when they came to see me, did not refer to that at all”, he said.
Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, on his part claimed that the move was aborted because members of the MAMA-HELP delegation were not credible.
A statement signed by Executive director of MAMA-HELP, Gavin Brown, however noted how its plans to offer free medical facilities and medical equipment including drones to Ghana never materialised.
“In a letter dated January 31, 2018 from the Honorable Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, Minister for Health, he rescinded acceptance of the MAMA-HELP Inaugural Luncheon scheduled for February 12, 2018”
“Subsequently, we received information that a drone operation had signed a contract to provide similar services, we therefore considered the matter to be closed”, portions of the statement read.