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But a statement issued by the Ministry ofHealthon Wednesday, June 9 said: “We were torn between accepting the price to enable us have access to the vaccine or facing the situation of the seller withdrawing from the negotiations, to the extent that the 15,000 doses that had been shipped to Ghana were going to be rerouted to other countries.” The statement signed by the Chief Director of the Ministry, Kwabena Boadu Oku-Afari, noted that the government was unable to obtain direct supplies of the vaccines from the Russian government and so had to resort to one Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the supplies.
He said “We state without fear of contradiction that even this transaction qualifies to be an international economic transaction within the meaning of Article 181(5) of the 1992 Constitution and therefore, failure to have parliamentary approval or better still ratification of it leaves it walking an illegal transaction per the laws of the land ,” he said.
Government will only take that decision if all avenues are closed to it.” Ghana has been cited in an investigative report in a Norwegian newspaper Vergens Gang for agreeing to procure the Sputnik V vaccines from a businessman at a unit price of $19 instead of $10.
It has assured Ghanaians that “it will endeavour to secure vaccines for the Ghanaian people, despite global shortages and cognisant of price and legal considerations”.
“We will be happy to see what the opinion of of the Attorney General will be on this particular transaction but we are interested in the cost over run and the unjustified, exorbitant payment of COVID vaccines using middlemen,” he added.
Yes we were involved and I can assure you that it is difficult to procure vaccines directly from manufacturers,” she said.
Yes from the beginning we were involved but I can assure you that it is difficult to procure vaccines directly from manufacturers but whatever decision government takes, the responsibility is all of us.
“These are the factors which led us to agree the final price of US$19 per dose,” the Ministry stressed..
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