The Committee on Health in Parliament has expressed disappointment at the failure of the Minister of Health, Kweku Agyeman-Manu to provide a quick explanation for the cause of the shortage of some vaccines in the country.
The Ministry of Health, along with the Ghana Health Services, the Global Fund, the Ministry of Finance and the Vaccine Control Programme failed to show up at a meeting with the Committee to discuss the shortage.
The only agency that made it to the meeting, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), explained it had honoured its financial obligation with respect to statutory payments for vaccines.
Deputy CEO of the NHIA in charge of Finance, Francis Owusu, assured the Committee it is not in arrears in vaccine payments and indicated that GH¢72 million was allocated for vaccines in 2022 out of which GH¢71.86 million was disbursed in four tranches in June, October, November and December.
He disclosed that per instructions from the Minister of Finance, the NHIA made the payments directly to the accounts of Unicef through a directive to the Bank of Ghana to debit its cedi account and credit Unicef’s account with its dollar equivalent.
Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Ayew Afriyie, described the failure of the Ministry to show up as a missed opportunity to address a very pressing issue related to the health of the Ghanaian people.
The Committee subsequently gave the Minister of Health two hours to meet to discuss the matter before members embark on a tour of the regions to ascertain the seriousness of the shortage.
The Chairman stated the absence of the minister to speak to such an important national issue is a disaster and agreed to suggestions by the ranking and other members of the Committee to issue a subpoena to compel the Minister to appear before it.
He said, “I think the Minister had all the opportunity to come and just speak to the issue but his absence is best described as a disaster.”
“He has deputy Ministers and agencies that must come and we are giving them up to a certain time other than talking of tomorrow because the Committee has to travel to the Bono and Ashanti Regions to oversee to vector control measures.”
Ranking member of the Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh expressed shock that Ghana in 2023 is still recording outbreaks of measles and shockingly in the midst of a vaccine shortage.
He stated it is quite disheartening that such an important exercise to get the responses to pertinent questions and the Minister for Health failed to show up, particularly so when the Ministry had two deputies.
According to him, the Health Committee is one of the major stakeholders in the health sector and stated, “If you have any responsible minister, we should not be inviting him. He should be running to us to brief us on what is happening because other Ministers do it on the floor of the House. They don’t wait till Committees call them. They come to the floor of the House and brief us.”
“As I speak to you now there is an outbreak of Lassa fever and we have just heard it on the news. Nobody has come to brief us of what is happening and yet at the end of the day, we approve your budget. It is quite disappointing,” he added.
Mr. Akandoh agreed to the suggestion by a member of the Committee and former Minority Whip, Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak for the Committee to subpoena the Minister to provide the answers.
According to him, since the NHIA has assured that payment for vaccines is not in arrears and that they have honoured their obligations, it is only proper for the Minister to explain what accounts for the vaccine shortage.