Outgoing minister for health Kweku Agyeman Manu is insisting he did no wrong in the purchase of Sputink V vaccines in the heat of the COVID pandemic two years ago, describing the episode as a possible set up.
Government during the heights of the pandemic came under a barrage of attacks following allegations it was using middlemen to secure over a million doses of Sputnik-V vaccines at a cost of $19 instead of $10 on the international market.
The Minister of Health was subsequently dragged to parliament by the Minority accusing him of not doing due diligence and paying for the vaccines at an above-standard price.
Speaking to GHOne News’ Evelyn Araba Aidoo, the health minister who was axed by President Akufo-Addo in his reshuffle did no wrong.
“I had done no wrong but some people just wanted to pitch me up and put wrongdoing on me. I was doing that one in good fate, collaborating, had meetings, I didn’t do that transaction myself alone. Then all of a sudden “You didn’t come to parliament, in an emergency.”, he told Evelyn Araba Aidoo.
“No matter how much I tried to explain, the health committee in parliament would not accept nothing. At one stage, I got so down that I was even requesting that they should charge me to court, because I thought that my explanations would have been accepted in court rather than in front of my own colleagues in the committee. Whether it was mischief or something, I wouldn’t be able to tell, but that was what happened.”, Kweku Agyeman-Manu added
The Dormaa Central MP, insists despite the episode, he did his best for the country.
“Subsequently, even when that was dying down, another group in the chamber was trying to cite me for perjury and they were asking for censure motion on me. These were times that I felt that I have done so well, I was working so hard to try to keep us alive even in the midst of massive pandemic on the globe. But despite all that, I managed to continue to do what I was doing to save the lives in Ghana.”
“I don’t know what is going to happen, but that is what it is. I will still insist and continue to say I did no wrong. I never can be cited for any wrongdoing. But it gave me pressure because that was in my nature.”, he insisted.
The outgoing minister has also described the auditors general report on the Covid-19 expenditure was an incomplete work insisting that he performed brilliantly during the pandemic.
Kweku Agyeman Manu who served as Health Minister for past 7 years is set to be replaced by his former deputy during the COVID pandemic and CEO for NHIA, Bernard Okoe-Boye
