The Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) has petitioned the Special Prosecutor, Mr Kissi Agyebeng to investigate circumstances that led to the contractual agreement between the Frontiers Health Services contract and the Ghana Airport Company Limited with regards to the mandatory COVID-19 testing at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

The Frontiers Health Services was contracted to conduct mandatory COVID-19 tests for travelers at the airport at a cost of $150 per head.

There have been several concerns about the contractual agreement and cost of the test among others.

Latest to join the fray of concerned citizens is ASEPA.

A petition signed by its Executive Director, Mensah Thompson on 11 August 2021 said “So far there have been very limited information about how the Ghana Airport Company selected Frontiers Health Services for this particular contract, we have cause to believe that the Public Procurement Law was not properly adhered to in a transparent as required by law.

“Recently the Minister of Health announced that a total of about 17 million has been accumulated from the testing of passengers at the Kotoka International Airport since last year when the borders were opened and out of that amount, ONLY a paltry 1 million in terms of revenue was accrued to Ghana”.

ASEPA is, therefore, invoking the jurisdiction of the office of the Special Prosecutor to initiate investigations into the Frontiers Health Services contract with the Ghana Airport Company Limited in respect of the COVID-19 testing at the airport.

ASEPA wants Mr Agyebeng’s office to do the following:

a.     Investigate who signed the contract, what are the terms of the contract and the processes leading to the selection of Frontiers Health Services by the Ghana Airport Company.

b.     To investigate the background of Frontiers Health Services, who the shareholders are, the country of origin to ascertain who the beneficial owners of this rip off arrangement are.

c.     To investigate the total amount of money generated from the COVID-19 testing at the airport from the inception of this agreement till 31 July 2021.

d.     To investigate allegations of money laundering against Frontiers Health Services in respect of the repatriation of monies generated from the vovid-19 testing at the airport.

e.     To investigate allegations of procurement breaches against the Managing Director of Ghana Airport Company and the Minister of Aviation in respect of this Frontiers contract.

f.      Produce a corruption risk assessment report on the transaction.

g.     Initiate criminal prosecutions against all persons found culpable in this rip-off transation.

Meanwhile, ASEPA has indicated that “a 48-hour ultimatum given to the Honourable Attorney General to initiate criminal investigations into the procurement vaccines would elapse by close of day today”.