The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) says GH¢71 million out of a total budget of GH¢72 million was released for the procurement of vaccines in 2022.
The Health Minister and other agency heads were scheduled to appear before Parliament’s Health Committee yesterday to answer questions about the country’s vaccine shortage.
Only the NHIA honoured the invitation.
Speaking at the committee meeting, Francis Owusu, a Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Finance, stated that while funds were made available for the purchase of vaccines in 2022, they are yet to be delivered.
“We were allocated GH¢72 million but as we speak, we made a payment of GH¢71 million, so we are not in arrears.
The instruction from the Ministry of Finance is that, we pay directly to UNICEF account, so we issued a letter to the Bank of Ghana to debit our account and credit the UNICEF account with the dollar equivalent”.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Health Committee, Nana Ayew Afriyie, has announced that the group will embark on a four-day tour of areas of the country experiencing vaccine shortages to discuss better control measures.
“We also have oversight work. The committee is going to head to the Bono Region to oversee the vector control measures and then to the Ashanti Region and arrive in Accra on Saturday.
Therefore, trying to subpoena [the Minister] is a good one that the absence will therefore trigger a censure.
I will probably discuss with the committee to see if we can suspend sittings and invite the Minister because he has deputies, therefore he must appear before us.”
Kwaku Agyemang-Manu and some heads of agencies failed to honour the summons by the Health Committee of Parliament today over the shortage of vaccines for immunizing children in Ghana.
For the past few months, the Northern Region and other parts of the country have been experiencing vaccine shortages, with no solution in place.
The absentee agencies have not given tangible reasons for not honouring the invitation except the Health Ministry’s Chief Director who indicated that the Ministry has written a letter to the Committee asking for an extension.
