Ghana has terminated the contract between the Emirati middleman Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum to procure Sputnik V vaccines which was slated to arrive in July, the Minister of Health Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has declared.
The minister appeared before a nine-member committee to answer questions regarding the state of the contract to procure the ‘overpriced’ Sputnik V vaccines from Russia since he was the same middleman to deliver the first batch of vaccines sold to Ghana at an inflated price of $19 instead of the ex-factory price of $10.
Mr Agyeman-Manu told the nine-member bi-partisan parliamentary probe committee on Thursday, July 15, that it was the Sheikh who wrote to the ministry on Wednesday to inform them about the termination of the contract.
According to the minister, the Sheikh made it known in the letter that he was finding it difficult to raise the vaccines to deliver them to Ghana.
“We are not just terminating the contract because, after the contract, they gave us two weeks to supply the first 300,000 doses of the vaccines that we have ordered based on the letters of credit we have given them as part of the terms of agreement but our letters of credit delayed but we got to them later. They came back to tell us that they have run out of stock and they are waiting on the manufacturer to supply them and they will supply us in two weeks” the Health Minister disclosed to the committee.
He added “after two weeks we inquired and they said they still haven’t received it. So we started engaging them that if that is the matter, they should permit us to withdraw from the contract so that we can do something different and buy vaccines for ourselves. Because our faith in them to supply the vaccines was waning, so we continued to put pressure on them and they gave us until July. They later gave us verbal notice that they will not be able to supply any longer and so we requested that they terminate the agreement, which they have actually done. So, as we sit here, there is no contract between the two of us”.
Mr Agyeman-Manu also pointed out that another contract with an intermediary company known as S.L Global which is a Ghanaian firm is under review.
He said “we still haven’t issued any letters of credit S.L. Global, although the contract exists. The company is also giving indications that they will not be able to supply, so we are still engaging them”.