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The Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, has expressed regret over the procurement of Sputnik V vaccine without parliamentary approval.

Ghana went into an agreement with middle-man Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum and SL Global to supply 3.4 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine.

The controversial contract saw Ghana procuring the vaccine at a unit cost of 19 dollars as against the ex-factory price of 10 dollars per dose.

This agreement was without parliamentary approval as required in Article 181(5) of the 1992 Constitution.

Answering questions at the sitting of a bi-partisan parliamentary committee probing the contract, Monday, the Health Minister said he went into that agreement because "the country was not in normal times".

He said: “I was in a desperate and helpless situation with the management of the covid numbers. In February, we had 78 deaths; by March, we had 56 deaths, and these were the numbers that pushed me to act…if you were the Health Minister, I think you might have taken certain decisions that in hindsight you may not have done those things. The country was not in normal times...this was the environment I found myself in and out of desperation, frustration, and so many things”

“I relied on the Executive Instrument 61 passed by Parliament and hid behind emergency clauses that have been invoked to do that and come to Parliament and inform the House that this is what I had done and, therefore, I need regularisation and need the approval to provide it”

It Won't Happen Again

Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu further assured Parliament that he won't enter into any agreement or make any procurement without parliamentary approval.

“I was seriously in a situation that could not make me think properly. I dealt with the Sheikh before the frantic efforts to get the vaccines from the right source. I made efforts, but I did not juxtapose the timing with the efforts that I made. I made that error and in hindsight, it won’t happen again.”

Meanwhile, government has abrogated the controversial contract for the supply of Sputnik V vaccines.

According to the Minister for Health, the contract was terminated because Sheik Al Makhtoum and SL Global could not supply the vaccine doses procured.