Member of Parliament for Asawase and parliament’s Health Committee, Muntaka Mubarak, has criticized the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, for his failure to show up in Parliament to answer questions surrounding the vaccine shortages in parts of the country.
According to him, the health minister, despite an invitation sent to him and follow-up calls made, refused to appear in parliament today, February 28, 2023. He revealed that the conduct of the minister does not speak well of the outfit he occupies.
“The Minister of Health being invited to the Committee of Parliament, he himself being a Member of Parliament having in mind the provisions of the 1992 Constitution and the ranking member following up with even a call a week before the meeting, and the matter in question is at the time that elsewhere, Parliament would invite the minister within 24-hours, and he has to appear because of its urgency. Now, you have a minister of health who for me, for lack of a better word, I will say disrespectfully refused to attend to the invitation of the committee.”
Muntaka Mubarak
Mr Mubarak stated that the absence of the health minister in parliament predicts “how he is running the Ministry” and it is unfortunate to have a government where “a lot of its actors are behaving as though they are doing the citizens a favor” by occupying those offices. He explained that it is a sad observation as these ministers should instead be attending to the urgent needs of their ministries.
“Everyone around this table is very much aware of the importance of the expanded programme on immunization. Every other thing can wait but not the expanded programme on immunization because the six or so killer diseases, once you don’t get immunized in a certain period, you endanger all of us because this is something the children will miss and you cannot easily correct.”
Muntaka Mubarak
Vaccine shortages in Ghana
The invitation by the Chairman of parliament’s Health Committee to the health Minister to attend an emergency meeting was to brief the Committee on the cause of vaccine shortage in Ghana and the measures being put in place to address the situation.
The Committee further requested the presence of the Ghana Health Service, the National Health Insurance Authority, the Global Fund, the Ministry of Finance, and the Vaccine Control Programme. However, the health minister who doubles as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dormaa Central did not appear, a situation that got members on the committee furious due to the urgency of the matter.
Meanwhile, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Kumah Aboagye, has disclosed that challenges encountered in the acquisition of vaccines to address shortages in the country will be resolved in the next three weeks. He indicated that his outfit was unable to procure BCG, Measles and Polio Vaccines because of the exchange rate pressures that drove the dollar-rated vaccines through the roof.
“We have had some delays in procuring Polio, MR and BCG. It is because the ministry’s budget to procure them are in cedis and at the time it was due for procurement… Now, we have done it and within the next three weeks we are sure to address it.”
Patrick Kumah Aboagye
He equally stated that Ghana is working with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) to have all obligations to Ghana settled for the release of more vaccines. He highlighted that the Health Service will roll out a catch-up program to ensure that all children who defaulted in their vaccinations take the full complement of their shots.
“We have two types of vaccines. The traditional ones that the nation buys and the ones we get in collaboration with GAVI where government pays part of it.”
Patrick Kumah Aboagye
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