Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, the Minister of Health, has disclosed that the United States has resubmitted a revised MoU after Ghana rejected the proposed $109 million health funding compact.
The Health Minister’s revelation follows Mahama’s disclosure that the United States had requested further discussions with Ghana to amend or remove some provisions of the proposed health funding agreement.
He disclosed that the government is expected to continue reviewing the revised document before deciding whether to proceed with the proposed partnership.
Speaking in an interview on Channel One TV’s The Point of View on Monday, October 19, Mr Akandoh stated, “As of the last time I checked, they resubmitted another MoU because we decided not to go with the first one. And we are looking at it, and we’ll go to Cabinet for consideration”.
He further argued that he is under no pressure to sign a proposed health funding agreement with the United States.
According to the Health Minister, the government will make a decision in Ghana’s best interest.
Kwabena Mintah Akandoh stated, “No, I’m never under any pressure. Trust us to take the best decision in the interest of the country”.
“We need partnership, but we need partnership with respect and dignity. So these fragmentations and tendencies and promises of partnership — no, we will have to move from dependency to dignity, from fragmentation to solidarity,” he added.
He added, “I’ve heard some people saying it is not individual data. They were looking for aggregated data. Whether aggregated data or individual data is data,” he said.
“So you also have to tell yourself Ghana first. So we came from Ghana first to meet America First,” he said.
It will be recalled that some weeks ago President John Dramani Mahama defended and explained Ghana’s decision to reject a proposed health compact from the United States.
Mahama described some of the US health deal conditions as humiliating and unacceptable.
According to John Mahama, the compact was presented as a replacement for health funding previously provided through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
He disclosed that the $100m US health compact was thrown out of Cabinet after a review by the Ministry of Health.
Mahama detailed that the Ministry of Health prepared a Cabinet Information Paper after examining the agreement and flagged several provisions.
He disclosed that the proposed compact required Ghana to provide the United States with its pathogen profile and medical records, which President Mahama said raised concerns about the country’s health data.
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, President Mahama explained, “We received the Health Compact from the US to replace USAID funding, and Ghana is a sovereign nation, and we have our processes. We’re a democratic country, and so when the compact was received, the Health Ministry studied it and did what we call a cabinet information paper”.
“And so, the compact was brought to cabinet, and we flagged several things in the compact. One, it says that we shall give the United States our pathogen profile. It means what diseases are endemic in Ghana; what is the pathogen profile of a country,” Mahama added.
“They also say we should give our medical records. I mean, who takes another country’s medical records? And so that was strange,” he added.
“And then it also says we would have to put up a certain amount of money as part of the program into healthcare,” he said.
“And then it also says that any medications or any medical products that shall be brought into our country, our Food and Drugs Administration has absolutely no rights to inspect. I mean, it was humiliating, and so it was the compact that was thrown out in record time in our cabinet,” he added.
“We asked the health minister to inform the US ambassador that we didn’t need it, we’ll manage ourselves, and for a pittance, a hundred and something million dollars, and so we said, no, we didn’t want it, and we’re doing fine,” he noted.
@ghnow_ The aunt of the late Nana Yaw, popularly known as Terry/Dinero, has appealed to anyone who owes him money to pay it to his mother. #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
@ghnow_ Fresh information has emerged from investigators in the murder case of Circle phone dealer Nana Yaw, popularly known as Terry/Dinero. #GHNow #fyp ♬ suono originale – 🐕🐶🐾🐈🐱QUAlaZAMPA🐱🐈🐾🐶🐕
