Anti-graft campaigner, Vitus Azeem has said that the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu may have attempted to suppress the truth in regards to payment for the procurement of Sputnik V vaccines when interrogated by Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee.

The sector Minister told members of the committee when he testified before them, “to the best of my knowledge, we haven’t done any payment.”

But reacting to this on Prime Morning Tuesday, Mr Azeem said, “So it appears that initially there were attempts to try to suppress the truth, but with the pressures mounted on the Minister and the Ministry, they are now coming out to expose these things.”

Discussion on the show centered around the correspondence between the Health Ministry, addressed to Sheikh Al Maktoum, requesting refund of the over $2 million paid and another from Messrs Al-Maktoum’s office accepting to refund the money.

The Ad Hoc Committee set up to probe the procurement of the Sputnik vaccines revealed that the Health Ministry paid an amount of $2,850,000 of $5,700,000 [50% of the contract sum] to Sheikh Al Maktoum. The Committee, therefore, requested that the money be retrieved.

Assessing the unfolding issues, Vitus Azeem said, the Minister’s assertion that he was not aware that the monies had been paid, is questionable.

“Is he saying that he and his Director are not in tune with how things are happening in the Ministry, can the Minister of Finance just go ahead and pay monies without getting instructions from the Minister of Health?” he wondered.

He said, “somebody initiated the transaction, somebody initiated the request for payment of the monies, that person should be the one to tell Parliament that yes, I requested and that I have followed up until the monies have been paid.”

Again, he noted that once the Minister has written a letter for a refund of the money, then it is “either the Health Minister told a lie or there is a serious disconnect between him and his key Director and even the Finance Minister.”

“We don’t expect that to happen among government institutions,” he noted.

The Anti-graft campaigner, therefore, suggested that once a person swears on oath to tell nothing but the truth, “If it turns out that, that was not the truth, that is enough for you to be sanctioned.”

Mr Azeem, however, said indeed there may be some people in the Ministry who are doing things without the knowledge of the Minister.

“And so as much as we think that the Minister should be sanctioned, if he can prove that certain things took place behind his back, then those people who were engaged in such transactions should also be brought to book.

“But of course at the end of the day, the Minister is the overall head of the Ministry and he should be responsible,” he said.

He also doubted if Mr Agyemang-Manu cared to find out when the monies were paid or who requested for the payment to be made and if he had taken any actions against those involved in that payment without his knowledge or authority.

“It’s now left to him to take actions on the subordinates that probably tried to undermine him if that was the situation.

“But for now, let’s say the Minister did not tell the truth to Parliament and so he is subject to some sanctions,” he maintained.