The Ministry of Health has responded to the Auditor General’s latest report on government’s COVID-19 expenditure.
In the report, the Auditor General noted that the Ministry of Health on behalf of the Government of Ghana paid an amount of $120,192,379.80 to UNICEF/AVAT for the supply of vaccines, “However, 5,109,600.00 doses of vaccines valued at $38,322,000.00 were supplied to the National Cold Room leaving a difference of US$81,870,379.00 with UNICEF/AVAT.”
The Chief Director of the Health Ministry was advised by the Auditor General to renegotiate and pay the remaining sum. The Auditor General claims that this needs to be done right away in order to guarantee that the state gets its money back. While acknowledging the delay in getting the vaccines, the Ministry of Health noted in a statement that the reason for the delay was unexpected reluctance, problems with the cold chain, unforeseen donations, as well as manufacturer’s storage issues.
“The Ministry in June 2022 was constrained to agree on a delivery plan for the remaining 11,052 million doses to be provided from June to December 2022 due to the unexpected reluctance, cold chain storage challenges, spontaneous donations, as well as manufacturer’s storage difficulties. From June to December 2022, 1.6 million doses were supposed to be supplied in order to finish the allocation. However, the aforementioned difficulties caused a delay in this process. However, the Ministry gave the assurance in the statement that steps are being taken to examine the contract.
“At this time, the June allotment was supplied in January 2023 after the Ministry sought it and got it. The Ministry would want to reassure the public of our commitment to acting in the best interests of the public while we continue to engage with the AVAT on a potential review of the contract.
