Govt response Two Dockets ‘Ready’
By Gifty Boateng
A year after the Akufo-Addo administration made its tumultuous exit, the man at the centre of one of its most controversial COVID-19 procurement scandals is walking free and talking loudly.
But the Mahama government insists the legal silence on former Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang-Manu is about to be broken, and not by his boasts.
At a commissioning ceremony for a maternity ward in his Dormaa Central backyard on Tuesday, the veteran politician mocked the very notion of his prosecution.
“I walk freely in Ghana,” he declared, framing the lack of court action as definitive proof that the allegations of corruption surrounding the Sputnik V vaccine procurement were merely “politically motivated propaganda” orchestrated by the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“I have not been crying for help,” Mr. Agyemang-Manu told his constituents. “Some people said either I would fall sick or die, but here I stand. Some said I would be arrested and locked up. A year has passed, and here I stand.”
It was a pointed jab at an administration that swept into power on a promise of aggressive constitutional and accountability crusades.
Yet, for months, the former Dormaa Central MP and ex-chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has remained untouched, a symbol for some of the new government’s sluggish pace, and for others, proof of the old one’s innocence.
However, the corridors of the Flagstaff House erupted on Wednesday. The government’s chief spokesperson, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, delivered a sharp rebuttal, revealing that the former minister’s claims of immunity are a dangerous miscalculation.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, Mr. Kwakye Ofosu, who also serves as Minister for Government Communications, dropped a significant political bombshell.
He disclosed that Mr. Agyemang-Manu was in fact arrested and interrogated by the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) months ago, contradicting the former minister’s narrative of being ignored.
“That claim that he has not been charged is false… He was arrested. He was interrogated, questioned, and cautioned,” Mr. Kwakye Ofosu stated, adding that the investigation files are now complete and awaiting action.
According to the President’s spokesperson, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, is now holding two fully assembled dockets against Mr. Agyemang-Manu.
These relate directly to the twin procurement storms that defined the end of the former minister’s tenure: the Sputnik V vaccine deal and the separate COVID-19 frontier case.
“He will be charged formally in the next few weeks,” Mr. Kwakye Ofosu asserted. He indicated that the charges are expected to include causing financial loss to the state and multiple breaches of procurement laws.
The revival of these dockets brings back into sharp focus the findings of a parliamentary committee chaired by then-Deputy Majority Leader Alex Afenyo-Markin in 2021.
The investigation revealed that the Ministry of Health, under Mr. Agyemang-Manu, had struck deals with two entities the office of Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum and a local firm, S.L. Global to procure the Russian vaccine.
The committee found the government had agreed to pay $19 per dose to the Sheikh and $18.50 to S.L. Global, a significant premium on the reported ex-factory price of $10.
The transaction was conducted under a certificate of urgency, bypassing the Board of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) and, crucially, Cabinet approval.
Perhaps most damaging was the discovery that despite the minister’s sworn testimony that no funds had changed hands, nearly $2.85 million half the contract sum with the Sheikh had already been paid.
The committee concluded that the agreement with Al Maktoum constituted an international transaction requiring parliamentary approval under Article 181(5) of the 1992 Constitution, a fact confirmed by the Attorney-General’s advice at the time, which was ignored.
For Mr. Agyemang-Manu, the stakes are personal. His public performance in Dormaa was an attempt to rehabilitate a reputation tarnished by the damning parliamentary report and to cast the NDC’s campaign promises as hollow.
But for the Mahama administration, the stakes are political. Having accused the previous government of presiding over a “culture of impunity,” the failure to secure a conviction in a case as high-profile as the Sputnik deal would be a severe embarrassment.
The coming weeks will reveal whether Mr. Kwakye Ofosu’s declaration is the beginning of a long-awaited legal process, or merely a tactical attempt to silence a defiant former minister.
As one senior government official told The New Republic, “The dockets are ready. The question is no longer ‘if’, but ‘when’ the former minister will have to trade his political rally for a courtroom dock.”