After the COVID-19 pandemic plagued the world, Ghana was plunged into dire economic hardships. The government never seized any opportunity to remind Ghanaians that the pandemic had injured the economy gravely.
However, many Ghanaians did not seem to buy into the “PR gimmicks” the government had employed.
One such Ghanaian is investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure, who has detailed some of the things that happened “behind the scenes” as far as the pandemic is contained in his latest book titled “The President Ghana Never Got”.
In chapter 30 titled “The Scandal Akufo-Addo Initiated,” he wrote, “It was natural to think that the COVID-19 pandemic would cause them to reflect and attempt to act reasonably, but those in charge did not miss an opportunity to create avenues to loot.”
According to him, the country’s health facilities were overstretched and starved of the necessary equipment needed to aid the fight against the pandemic.
He mentioned that the Ashanti Region with a population of over five million had access to only 40 beds in its health centres. It was so underwhelming that some patients who had tested positive were kept in wards with those who did not test positive for the virus.
Manasseh wrote: “What caused COVID-19 taxes to be passed after Akufo-Addo won his second term in the December 2020 election?”
How government looted through disinfection exercises
After the news of the virus reaching Ghana broke, the president ordered the disinfection of public places including markets and schools. Manasseh said the government suspended the services of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA).
It rather employed the services of another contractor to undertake the exercise at an additional cost to the state.
From the figures, the Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Education probably spent not less than 600 million cedis on these exercises “which were undertaken by a private contractor where the assemblies were ordered to stop”.
Manasseh called the fumigation exercise senseless emphasising the World Health Organisation’s position that the exercise was needless.
How government looted through COVID-19 testing
In 2020, the government mandated all travellers coming to Ghana to undertake antigen tests upon arrival at the airport and ports of entry. The government “hurriedly” formed a company called Frontiers Healthcare Services Limited to handle the tests.
“That shady arrangement was the biggest fraud on Ghanaians and travellers to Ghana,” Manasseh wrote.
The test conducted by Frontiers was $150. Meanwhile, a virologist at the Noguchi Memorial Centre for Medical Research, Dr. Kofi Bonney said the antigen test, unlike the PCR test, was not expensive.
According to him, the cost of the test ranged between $10 and $20. He received several backlashes from the government after which the Centre released a statement to dissociate itself from the claims stating that it was the scientist’s personal views.
Manasseh noted that the antigen test in Ghana’s airports was, perhaps the most expensive COVID-19 antigen test in the world.
“From the figures released, the company made US$84 million from the exercise and vanished into thin air afterwards,” he wrote.
He was of the view that these monies went into the pockets of government.
