US$81M Worth Of Outstanding Covid Vaccines Supplied; MoH Says

The Ministry of Health (MoH) has said the US$81M worth of outstanding covid vaccines under the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)/African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) have been supplied.

This was in response to the recently released report of an audit of vaccines supplied under the UNICEF/AVAT deal.

The Auditor General found that 16,025,650 vaccines were intended to be supplied under the agreement, however, only 5,109,600 were supplied.

“We noted that the Ministry of Health on behalf of Government of Ghana paid an amount of US$120,192,379.80 to UNICEF/AVAT for the supply of 16,025,650 vaccines under the agreement. However, 5,109,600.00 doses of vaccines valued at US$38,322,000.00”, the report said.

This meant vaccines worth US$81,870,379.80 were not supplied.

But in a press statement, the Ministry said the vaccines were supplied this month.

It said 16,918,600 doses of the Jansen vaccines were agreed for delivery as and when we needed them due to the country’s ambitious quest to vaccinate 21 million of the population; avoid wastage and expiration; and skip difficulties in access to vaccines at the time.

“Due to the unexpected hesitancy, cold chain storage challenges, spontaneous donations as well as manufacturer’s storage difficulties, the Ministry in June 2022, was compelled to agree on a delivery schedule for the remaining 11,052 million doses to be delivered from June to December 2022.

“According to the schedule, 1.6 million doses were to be delivered from June to December 2022 to complete the allocation. However, this process was delayed because of the aforementioned challenges. Currently, the Ministry requested and has received the June allocation which was delivered in January 2023.”

The Ministry says it is working with AVAT for a possible review of the contract.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini