Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta
• Ofori-Atta continues to receive backlash over procurement of Sputnik V vaccines
• Pressure keeps mounting on health minister, Agyeman-Manu, to resign
• Mintah Akandoh opines that the public purse is not safe
Member of Parliament for Juaboso constituency, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has said the country’s purse will be empty if Ken Ofori-Atta remains the finance minister.
In Akandoh’s view, the finance minister is equally liable for the Sputnik V brouhaha as he (Ken Ofori-Atta) did not do due diligence before releasing funds for the procurement of Russian vaccines.
The Ranking Member on the Health Committee in Parliament made these claims on CitiNews’ Eye Witness programme monitored by GhanaWeb.
He said, “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.”
Mintah Akandoh said calls for the finance minister to resign is a step in the right direction.
The health minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has in recent times been under intense pressure to resign after making some errors in the procurement process of the Sputnik V vaccines.
The minister failed to secure approval from the board of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) as required by Sections 40 and 41 of Act 663, before executing the international agreements.
Meanwhile, Ken Ofori-Atta has been asked by the nine-member bi-partisan ad hoc committee of parliament probing the procurement deal of the controversial Sputnik V vaccine to recover the total amount of US$2,850,000 spent on the procurement of the Russian-made vaccine.