The Parliamentary committee set up to probe the government's contract to purchase Sputnik V vaccines will begin its public hearing today.

The committee is investigating claims government contracts with two firms including S. L. Global would have seen Ghana buying the vaccines at twice the price.

The 9-member committee’s mandate includes; to determine whether the two agreement between middlemen constituted international business transactions that should have first received Parliamentary approval, the committee will also determine whether appropriate procedures were used in acquiring the services of the middle men,.

The committee is also to ascertain the cost of the vaccine and whether the dost guarantee the value for money.

It will also determine whether the Health Minister misled Parliament by telling the committee that they were not going to buy vaccines for more than $10 when he had already signed an agreement for $19 per dose, as suggested by the Minority.

Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu is expected to be the first witness to appear before the committee.

Mr Agyeman Manu says he is ready for the probe.  

“I cannot fathom having signed an agreement and coning here to tell the house that we cannot buy vaccines for more than $10 where I had done for $19, the circumstances within which this probe agreement was done will be laid bare, every agenda. I am very ready to tell the Chamber to tell the committee the circumstances within which this was happening,” he said.

In a separate development, Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kumah Aboagye has revealed that the government is expecting over 1 million doses of Pfizer vaccines as well as other vaccines from the COVAX facility and the African Union in August.

“We are expecting about 1.2m Pfizer vaccines from COVAX through the US for us and we are hoping that latest between the middle of August it should be available. We also as mentioned earlier about 250,000 doses of Astra Zeneca would be coming in for the second dose. We will continue engaging other options to ensure that we have enough to cover all those who are waiting for the second dose,” he said.