Why confer a National Honour on your serially incompetent, corrupt Health Minister? – NDC quizzes Akufo-Addo

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has questioned the essence of the national honor conferred on the Minister of Health, Mr. Kwaku Agyemang-Manu by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the National Chairman of the opposition party, described the Health Minister as a corrupt and serially incompetent official who doesn’t deserve a national honor.

He noted that the government should rather sack the Health Minister, who has been accused by the Auditor General in its COVID-19 audit report of being involved in some misappropriation of funds.

In a lecture dubbed "The True State of the Nation Address," held at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) on Monday, March 20, Mr. Asiedu Nketiah rubbished the awards given to some officials of the current NPP government.

"Instead of the President sacking his serially incompetent Minister for Health, he decided to confer National Honours on the Minister's corruption and included even more corrupt appointees to desecrate the revered national awards," he said.

The NDC in the "True State of the Nation Address" cited the alleged misappropriation of funds at the Ministry of Information by Mr. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, as captured in the Auditor General’s report on the COVID-19 expenditure.

"It is dishonourable for officials of Kojo Oppong Nkrumah-led Ministry of Information to line their pockets with COVID funds under the guise of risk allowances," he said.

This was in response to the Auditor-General’s report, which revealed that the Information Ministry paid some GHS151,500 to its own management and staff without approval in the wake of the pandemic in 2020.

On this score, the Auditor General, for the period of March 2020 to June 2022, directed the ministry to refund the aforementioned amount.

"During our review, we noted that senior management staff and other supporting staff of the Ministry of Information paid themselves a total amount of GH¢151,500.00 as COVID-19 risk allowance for coming to work during the lockdown," the report stated.