CONFIRMED: Health Minister granted two-week leave to attend to ‘personal issues’

• The minister’s request which was granted by the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare is said to have begun last week

• There have been growing calls for the Kwaku Agyeman-Manu to resign over his involvement in the botched Sputnik V vaccine deal

Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has been granted a two-week leave of absence in order for him to attend to some “personal issues”, Citi News has reported.

According to the news portal, the leave which was granted by Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare is said to have begun last week.

Already, there have been growing calls by a section of the public for Mr. Agyeman-Manu to resign over his involvement in breaching procurement rules in the process of acquiring Sputnik V vaccines for Ghana.

The deal which has since been terminated was subjected to probe by a committee that is yet to formally come up with its final report on the matter.

Meanwhile, the intermediary Dubai-based businessman, Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, who has been at the centre of the botched controversial Sputnik V vaccine deal has agreed to refund an amount of US$2,470,000 of the US$2.8 million paid to him as he only supplied to Ghana 20,000 doses of the vaccines out of an expected 300,000 before the contract was terminated.

The development comes after the health minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, in a letter made a request for a refund of the money.

In a letter sighted by GhanaWeb, Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum asked the Health Ministry to provide account details necessary to undertake the refund.

“We acknowledge receipt of your letter, Ref No. MOIVOM/LL1/7/2I, dated 2nd of August 2021, with a formal request to refund the remaining amount of the non-supplied doses from the 50% advance transferred to our accounts.”

“We, hereby, request to kindly acknowledge and confirm the above-mentioned amounts to be refunded, further to which we shall initiate the refund process to your bank account. Please share with us the bank details where the refund needs to be processed,” the letter read in part.

See Sheikh Al Maktoum’s letter below: