The Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has accused the Minority in Parliament of having a vendetta against the Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, after calling for a vote of censure because of his role in the botched Sputnik V deal.
Speaking in Eyewitness News, Mr. Afenyo-Markin said the Minority was only trying to embarrass the minister, given they do not have the numbers to win a censure vote.
“They are perhaps doing their usual partisan political points scoring by this sudden attempt at perjury,” he said.
“If this is them trying to personalise the matter, that somebody doesn’t like Agyemang-Manu and wants to go after him, they should make it clear,” Mr. Afenyo-Markin added.
“I expect them reasonably to act in good faith, but this new attack on the minister is another personal attack and nothing more.”
After the Sputnik-V vaccines procurement scandal was probed by a committee Mr. Afenyo-Markin chaired, it was found that the Health Ministry did not receive Cabinet approval for the deal.
The Health Ministry also breached the constitution by not seeking parliamentary approval for the agreement.
But Mr. Afenyo-Markin is of the view that the Minister’s actions were in the interest of the state because it was geared towards saving lives.
“It would be unconscionable for the Minority to suddenly argue that there should be a censure against the minister. That I think is an attempt to be overly partisan to attack the integrity of the minister,” he said.
The committee was formed after it came to light that the government was using the services of middlemen to procure 3.4 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik-V COVID-19 vaccines.
This was at a higher cost of $19 other than the original factory price of $10 and prompted calls for the abrogation of the procurement contract.
Mr. Agyemang-Manu had claimed that the state had not made any payments for the vaccine.
The middleman eventually refunded the money paid to him.
