Executive Director of the African Center for Health Policy Research and Analysis Dr. Thomas Anaba said the COVID-19 fumigation of markets, schools and public institutions by Zoomlion Ghana Limited was a huge loss to the country.
He claimed that the chemical used did not fulfill its purpose.
Dr. Anaba made the allegation during his speech at the launch of TEIN level 100 students at Gbewa College of Education in the Upper East region on Saturday July 17, 2022.
He said: “You remember they said they were giving out PPE to the school. We traced and realized that many schools have not received PPE, meanwhile millions have been spent on PPE. The most interesting thing I see was how they collaborated with private institutions to deceive Ghana is the fumigation of churches, markets, schools and public institutions where Zoomlion Ghana Limited claimed to have fumigated Ghana and collected Ghc 81 million when they knew full well that the fumigation they did had no effect because the chemical they used did not fulfill the purpose for which they were used. So it was a loss of Ghc 81 million.”
He added: “Covid-19 came and we were all worried about how the government could get money to solve the covid-19 problem. Because from 2019 our economy started to decline. But luckily for Ghana, the government was even able to raise more money than we expected to get to deal with COVID-19. And if you also check our budget and our revenue generation, it is only in 2020 that we will fall short by Ghc 5 billion but in the rest of the years we will meet and even exceed our target and this shows that the government had enough money to handle covid. -19 and even had a surplus”.
He noted that the current government has failed to properly account for covid-19 expenses to Ghanaians.
Dr. Anaba stated, “But we are here if you want to check what the government has used the money for. After the finance minister billed it, we practically used half the money. The rest never told us where it fit. Since the very beginning of the COVID-19 management, some of us have had serious problems with how money has been spent.
"We first complained about the spread of news. They left everything to Kojo Oppong Nkrumah in Accra, media houses were left out and even the National Commission for Civic Education. Some of us need to come out and speak forcefully before the government starts giving them money. They never include local radio stations to be able to translate all information into local languages. We also saw what happened during the lockdown, they prepared a gift package for people who practically threw it away without responsibility. We complained that it would not be responsible, then they gave us very high amounts about what they spent.
He continued: “Meanwhile, we saw benevolent institutions and individuals donating things in a very orderly manner and telling people how much they donated to the institutions and that the government couldn't do that. There was a quarantine, when the facilities of the institutions that were used for the quarantine, if you trace the background, they were practically facilities owned by the NPP apparatchik. And you were fake that you paid huge sums of money instead of the government facilitating it and rather making money for us to stifle Ghana, rather making people in their side to earn benefits, get by with the revenue from COVID-19 and they left Ghana. If you look at the revenue we could have generated more, even the Kotoka International Airport, we could have made a lot of money there and remember the airport was built on credit. Instead of leaving the COVID-19 test for the airport, they preferred to give it to a private entity that made millions of dollars and took it away while the government struggled for money to pay for the construction of the airport. This shows that the government was not smart enough.
The former CEO of the Ridge Hospital under the Mahama administration stressed that despite all the financial support Ghana has received from the World Bank etc., the country has spent little to buy the covid-19 vaccine.
“When you come to buy the vaccines, the government of Ghana has not spent any big money to buy the vaccine from the pocket of the government of Ghana. We got practically everything through donations. The only vaccines we bought with our money was the fresh corruption where the finance minister and the health minister went ahead and paid money for vaccines we didn't even have and that really caused a brouhaha in the system.
“They decided to insure all the front line health workers, I'm on the front line, many private facilities were on the front line but they never had any insurance, but the worst part is that all those who were covered by insurance were covered by Enterprise Insurance , the same Private Company of the Minister of Finance it shows how they worked to cheat this country of resources”.
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