The Minority in Parliament has called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to strip Health Minister Kweku Agyeman Manu and Information Minister Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah of their national honours.
According to the side, the fact that these two ministers have been cited in the Auditor General’s audit of the COVID funds means they are undeserving of the awards.
It insisted all undeserving awardees should be stripped of the honours in order to maintain the sanctity of the awards else deserving Ghanaians will choose to shun it altogether because it is tainted.
Ranking member of the Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh who made the call on Wednesday 15th March 2023 in Parliament expressed the Minority’s concern about the outcome of the national awards ceremony.
The event, he said, turned out to be a final attempt by the President to clear persons being investigated by a Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry on their stewardship in the management of the COVID-19 funds.
He said, “For the first time in our history, persons whose conduct are currently being probed by a Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry, were publicly decorated with high honours in a desperate attempt by the President to finalize the corruption clearing process that he began during the message of the state of the nation address in Parliament.”
“The sensibilities of Ghanaians are ever being tested by this government and it beats the imagination of reasonable Ghanaians how a Health Minister who not- so-long-ago was investigated for the manner in which he flouted our procurement laws to award an overpriced contract for the procurement of Sputnik V in a subtle underhand dealing to defraud the state was given the high honour of the Order of the Volta.”
“Equally disturbing was the fact that at that same event the Minister for Information who was cited by the Auditor General for having made unauthorized allowance payments to staff of his office during the pandemic was also publicly draped in the high honours of the Order of the Volta even before his conduct or misconduct is fully investigated and cleared by the Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry.”
The ranking also expressed concern at the honours conferred on Frontiers Healthcare Services Limited and Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, Advisor to the President on Health.
He argued if these awards were meant to recognize hardwork, dedication and commitment towards the COVID fight, then frontline health workers who worked extended hours, sacrificed their health and lives to ensure that several others did not die should have been awarded instead of a mere mention of their work.
He said, “Some 6,543 of them who actually contracted COVID-19 with some dying in their line of service are still waiting to be paid those meagre insurance packages promised them since the year 2020.”
“Their awards wait in perpetuity even as we hurriedly confer national awards on those whose actions are yet to be justified before a parliamentary committee of enquiry,” he said.
The Minority pointed out that the National Awards Scheme instituted by Ghana’s first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah in 1960, presents high honours to citizens and institutions who have distinguished themselves in service and sacrifice for the maintenance and advancement of our country.
He stressed inasmuch as the Minority agrees with the principle of duly recognizing the efforts of deserving awardees, yesterday’s event lowered the high standards previously set and maintained by previous awardees by comingling deserving and undeserving awardees at the event.