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The Minority in Parliament has questioned the legality of the government’s decision to award the contract for testing passengers arriving at Kotoka International Airport for COVID-19 to Frontiers Healthcare Services Limited.
For the Minority, there was no legislation that gave the government the power and legal mandate to charge each passenger $ 150, or award the contract to the company that, they said, was registered on July 21, 2020, just a few days from the start of its operations at the airport.
Furthermore, the minority has questioned the rationale for awarding the contract to the company, which they say does not have a laboratory and therefore had subleased the passenger testing contract to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR).
“The company, as we have investigated, is owned by Healthcare Solutions Services Limited, which is owned by Peter’s Family Company Limited, which was also incorporated in June 2020. Peter’s Family Company Limited itself is registered offshore in Dominica and therefore Therefore, we do not want to believe that this could be another case of family and friends, ”he said.
We are not a banana republic
Speaking at a press conference in Parliament on Thursday [October 22, 2020], the minority leader, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, said “The rule is that if you don’t have a laboratory, you don’t qualify for the purpose of performing these services. How is it that they were chosen for this purpose? “
“We are not a banana republic because this is a country that is governed by law. It is not only exploitative but illegal and we are demanding that the money raised be given, ”he said.
‘The government is not for profit’
The Tamale South Member of Parliament said that with the growing threat of COVID-19 in Ghana, the Minority supported the state and government to pass the necessary legislation and the release of finances and justifiable funds to contain and combat COVID- 19.
“We are happy with the result, but Ghana is not out of the woods yet and this is not the time to celebrate. We need to consolidate the measures that we have put in place so far that have brought us here and with very insignificant cases.” of COVID-19 and negligible deaths reported across the country, ”he said.
However, he said the minority was concerned not only about the poorly crafted scheme being used to cash in on poor travelers from Ghana wishing to travel back home, but also about Frontier Healthcare Services Limited’s inability to provide the same. services for which the poor Ghanaian paid $ 150.
“The government was not created for profit,” he said, reminding the president to keep in mind that his primary responsibility was to contain the public health pandemic and not profit from it even for the “purposes of a friend or friend. a family”. “
‘Reward a friend’
The Minority Leader noted that the Minority had learned that Frontiers Healthcare Services Limited, in a letter dated August 28, 2020, requested the support of the National Laboratory Network coordinator for COVID-19 testing so that they could do his work.
Therefore, he questioned the basis for the government to grant COVID-19 testing to the company when Noguchi had been conducting COVID-19 testing for and on behalf of Frontiers Healthcare Services Limited.
“If you want due diligence and proper work, you award a contract to a company that does not have a laboratory and yet will depend on another laboratory to perform the exercise. It can only be a matter of rewarding a friend,” he added. .
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