Kwesi Pratt has slammed the Ministry of Health for delaying the distribution of some medical supplies donated to Ghana by The Global Fund.

The essential medicines which were reportedly to treat malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS patients were locked up at the port for reasons that duties hadn’t been paid to clear them for distribution to the health facilities across the country.

The drugs which had been sitting at the port for months since last year were finally attended to by the Ministry of Health this April.

The Ministry, according to its Public Relations Officer, Isaac Offei Baah, last Friday, April 12, 2024 cleared 14 out of the 182 containers at the port.

He listed the contents of the 14 containers to be of malaria and tuberculosis drugs while the remaining 168 containers which he asserted will also be cleared this Friday, April 19, contain mosquito-treated nets.

However, according to the Health Ministry, they are still finalizing documentation to process the medicines.

Relying the Ministry during a panel discussion on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo” morning show, Mr. Pratt decried the seemingly lackadaisical attitude of the Health Ministry towards the medical supplies wondering the relevance of the documentation before clearing them to serve the purpose for which the Global Fund freely gave them to Ghana.

To him, the conduct of the Ministry towards the freebies “is very disturbing”.

“What they’re saying is they have cleared some of the things and working on further documentation to clear the rest sitting at the port. What’s this? What documentation do we need to clear this? Is this the stage we have reached now?”, he irritatedly questioned.

He further castigated the Ministry saying “we won’t help ourselves; someone is offering to help too, we won’t allow the person”.