Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Majority Leader and MP for Suame
Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs has defended embattled Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu amid calls for his resignation over a botched Sputnik V vaccine deal.
Contrary to the widely held view that a recent committee report had implicated the Minister, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said Agyeman-Manu’s testimony needed to be understood in proper context.
The embattled Minister is accused of lying to the Parliamentary Committee on whether or not Ghana had made payments to vaccine merchants he was dealing with.
Citi FM quoted the Majority Leader as explaining his position as folows: “I called the Chairman [Afenyo-Markin] and Vice Chairman [Akandoh], and they both disagreed on what really happened at the committee level. I called the clerk of the committee, and she said she doesn’t really remember what exactly happened, but she will call for the recording.
“She did and came to inform me in the presence of the Chairman and Vice Chairman that indeed the minister did not make a categorical statement, and that the minister said ‘to the best of his knowledge no payment had been made.’
“Before then, I had told the secretary that if indeed the Minister made a categorical statement that no payment had been made, and they discovered that payment was made, then they should put that in the report that what the Minister had said was inconsistent with their [committee’s] own finding. So they put that in the report.”
He continued: “But when the clerk came out with the admission that indeed the Minister did not make any such categorical statement, and that the statement was qualified that ‘to the best of his knowledge, no monies was paid’, in that case will you say the minister lied? Clearly no… [So] in the presence of the Chairman and Vice, the secretary took out that portion of the report,” he explained.
The Committee report released late last week disclosed that Ghana had actually paid 50% of the over $5 million deal agreed with the office of UAE-based Sheikh Al Maktoum.
A total of US$2,850,000 had already been transferred to the Sheikh in what now appears to be a payment that the Minister was not aware of at the time he appeared before the Committee.
Calls for the minister to reign have come from the minority in Parliament whiles civil society and anti-corruption groups have also made similar calls.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has been ordered by Parliament to ensure the retrieval of the over $2.8 million paid. He has assured that the monies will be retrieved and joined the few voices empathizing with the Minister.
Over in Parliament, Minority Chief Whip and MP for Asawase, Muhammed Muntaka Mubarak, has hinted that the NDC will pass a vote of censure on the minister if the President refuses to fire him.
He stressed that the Minister breached the constitution by entering a deal of that nature without recourse to Parliamentary approval.
“It is beyond any reasonable doubt the minister betrayed his oath of office and, for that matter, and he also failed to uphold the constitution and the laws of our country.”
“I must say that the Minister should be sanctioned. He must be removed by the president. He is not fit to occupy the office of a minister of state and must therefore be removed from office henceforth, failing which this House must pass a vote of censure on the minister.”