Five years down the lane and Ghana is yet to rehabilitate its only Central Medical Store (CMS) razed to ashes on January 13, 2015.
Discussants on Corruption Watch show on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem were unanimous in expressing their worry about the development amid the current Coronavirus pandemic.
Ghana’s CMS contained every conceivable drug imported into the country, including drugs for deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and Ebola.
It served as the nation’s reserve of medical supplies to be distributed in times of pandemic and shortage of drugs in the country.
A report released by the Bureau of National Investigations after the fire, attributed the incident to arson which led to the prosecution of one Samuel Dogbe and some other 12 Ghana Health Service officials believed to be connected to the burning of the medical store.
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The prosecution of the suspected arsonists at the time of the filing of this report is still ongoing – five years on- a situation, the Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu has constantly attributed to the lack of ‘watertight evidence’ against the suspected arsonists for a successful prosecution.
Ghana’s stock of medical supplies lost in the fire was estimated to GH¢237 million.