Former Minister of Health Kwaku Agyemang Manu is set to face criminal prosecution in the coming weeks over the controversial procurement of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines and associated dealings with Frontiers Healthcare Services, government officials have disclosed.

Minister for Government Communications Felix Kwakye Ofosu said preparations for legal action are at an advanced stage, signalling one of the most significant accountability cases arising from Ghana’s pandemic response.

The development comes as public scrutiny intensifies following the release of the 2024 report by the Ghana Audit Service, which exposed billions of cedis in disputed liabilities, irregular payments and suspected fictitious claims across various government programmes.

Speaking on TV3’s Key Points programme on Saturday, March 14, Mr Kwakye Ofosu indicated that prosecutors are preparing formal charges.

“The former Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang Manu will be charged in the coming weeks over the Sputnik V vaccine purchase and Frontiers Healthcare Services,” he said.

The planned prosecution relates to Ghana’s attempt in 2021 to secure doses of the Sputnik V vaccine at the height of the global scramble for COVID-19 immunisations, when supply shortages left many developing countries struggling to protect their populations.

At the time, Ghana had already begun rolling out vaccines obtained through the COVAX facility and bilateral arrangements, but officials sought additional doses to accelerate immunisation.

Mr Agyemang Manu had reached an agreement with a United Arab Emirates intermediary, Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, and a Ghanaian company, S.L. Global, to supply millions of doses of the vaccine.

The contract sparked widespread controversy after it emerged that Ghana had agreed to purchase the vaccines through a middleman at about $19 per dose, nearly double the estimated $10 price offered by the manufacturer.

A parliamentary ad hoc committee later found that the agreements had been signed without the required parliamentary approval and without clearance from the Public Procurement Authority.

The committee also revealed that about $2.85 million (over GH¢16 million) had already been paid as part of the transaction for vaccines that were never delivered.

The deal was subsequently terminated by the government in July 2021 after the procurement process came under intense public and parliamentary scrutiny.

In the case of Frontiers Healthcare Services, it emerged that Ghana got a paltry US$6.4m, while Frontiers bagged US$80.6m for operating at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) to conduct COVID-19 tests.

The Fourth Estate reported that the contract between the GACL and Frontiers Healthcare Services Limited was signed on September 1, 2020, the same day Frontiers began the compulsory testing of passengers at the KIA.

The report further suggested that Frontiers received a licence to operate two months after it began services at the airport, contrary to the Health Facilities Regulatory Act 2011 (Act 829).

Again, the GACL did not receive approval from the Public Procurement Authority before awarding the contract to Frontiers, contrary to the country’s procurement laws.

There were concerns that the company did not have a history or experience in such tests.

Critics had indicated that the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Ghana’s premier research institution, was in a better position to do the testing.