Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta has said calls for the resignation or dismissal of the Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang Manu are unfair.
According to him, it will be only fair if Ghanaians appreciate the circumstances under which the Health Minister took some decisions in the procurement of Sputnik-V vaccines which turned out to have been riddled with irregularities.
Mr Agyemang Manu has come under heavy criticism for taking a ministerial decision to procure the vaccines from Russia through a middle man identity as Sheik Al Maktoum with recourse to the laid down procurement processes and public financial management acts.
An ad-hoc committee of parliament that was set up to probe the matter found the Minister guilty of breach of procurement processes because he had signed an international agreement without parliamentary approval.
Though he explained that he took the decision under distress, many Ghanaians have rejected his explanation and calling for him to resign or be dismissed by the President.
But speaking in an interview on Asaase Radio , Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta opined that such calls for the Health Minister to be sacked clearly shows that Ghanaians do not empathize with him for taking a decision in the interest of the people.
He argued that the Minister had no option under the circumstances but to make the decisions he took.
“I’m empathizing and I expect that others will realize the type of pressure that he [Mr Agyeman-Manu] was under and his commitment to ensuring that the Ghanaian people are safe” he said.
He indicated further that “To be so unsympathetic to somebody who felt like, ‘what can I do to ensure that there is continuity and to sit now comfortably and kind of just castigating him is unfair”.
Following a recommendation by the parliamentary committee for an amount of over $2.8 million which was paid to the middle man to be retrieved, Ken Ofori Atta assured that the money will be retrieved.
