The Minority Chief Whip has described the Health Minister’s alleged efforts to retrieve the monies paid to Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum to procure 300,000 doses of Sputnik Covid-19 vaccines as a mockery.

The Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, wrote a letter to the middleman requesting a refund following the publication of the report of the Parliamentary Committee that probed the Sputnik V vaccine contract.

But, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak is not enthused about this action.

“I think everybody with the greatest of respect, even the common trader at Makola or Kejetia Market will tell you that when they want to buy things abroad, they would rather raise LC (Letters of Credit) so that the person is assured that his or her money is held upon delivery takes the money.

“Now we have a whole government system which pays the money when they haven’t received the product and now that the Minister has written a letter telling a private businessman to refund the money. Is it not making a mockery of all of us?” he stated.

The Asawase legislator also faulted his colleague MPs tasked to investigate the matter for not making strong recommendations.

He insisted the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) will move for strict punishment for the Minister if he does not resign or dismissed by President Akufo-Addo.

“The terms of reference were very clear. Who was he dealing with? Was it a private person or government?  Was it an international agreement that he needed to come to Parliament? Yes. Did he come to Parliament? No. Did he breach the Public Procurement Act? Yes.

“Almost all the terms of reference were broken, but they [Members of the Committee] did not make a strong recommendation. We [NDC] will follow through to the very end,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, since the report went public, a cross-section of the public, including the Minority, called for the Minister to go.

Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, says his side of the aisle will not back down on their push to get the Health Minister out of the job.

“We will not abandon this matter. If the President does not revoke the appointment of the Minister for Health, we will request him through a vote of censorship to consider that matter,” he said.

Also, the New Crusading Guide newspaper editor-in-chief, Kwaku Baako Jnr, says the Minister has to resign.

“If he is minded to… resign, I will endorse it; I will vote for him if he were to do the honourable thing and just quit. You cannot defend this.”

Parliament set up an Ad hoc Committee to probe the contract submitted its report to the House on Friday, August 6, 2021.