Frontiers Healthcare Services Limited made $130m profit from Covid-19 testing at KIA – Okudzeto Ablakwa
Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has alleged that Frontiers Healthcare Services Limited, the company responsible for the Covid-19 testing at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) has amassed a profit of GHS984.7million (US$130million) over the last 18 months.
This revelation comes in the wake of the decision by government to suspend Covid-19 PCR testing at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) for fully vaccinated travellers into the country.
President Akufo-Addo who announced this during his 28th national address on measures to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic said these visitors will not be tested on arrival.
However, in less than 48 hours after the suspension of Covid-19 testing for fully vaccinated travellers, the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has disclosed that the Ghana Airport Company made US$8million as opposed to the US$130million profit made by Frontiers Healthcare Services Ltd.
“By our conservative estimates, the less than 2-month-old hurriedly incorporated Frontiers Healthcare Services Ltd made a staggering supernormal profit of US$130million (GHS984.7million — that’s almost a billion Ghana Cedis) over the last 18 months.
“Per the unpatriotic nepotistic agreement, the Ghana Airport Company which belongs to all 30.8million Ghanaians made a paltry US$8million. Don’t be surprised therefore that Ghana Airport cannot pay their electricity bills,” the NDC MP said in a Facebook post on Monday.
Mr. Ablakwa wondered how the company could make “an inhumane booty of US$130million from a pandemic which claimed countless lives.”
The Minority had already raised questions about the award of the contract of Covid testing to Frontiers Healthcare Services.
The NDC demanded an immediate suspension of the agreement because according to them, the contract was in breach of the country’s procurement law.
“This opaque status of Frontiers Healthcare Solution Services Limited clearly strengthens our position that the award of the contract to Frontier Healthcare Solution Services Limited is a grand scheme by the Akufo-Addo government and his family and friends to enrich themselves at the expense of people who are struggling to make ends meet in this difficult time of Covid-19,” Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh told the media at a press briefing in 2020.
Last Thursday, the NDC MPs served notice to the Ghana Police of its intention to organize a series of protests against what they have described as an illegal, unconscionable and extortionist COVID-19 Antigen test at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).
In a letter to the Police on March 24, the Minority said the protest will begin from Wednesday, March 30 within the hours of 2:00pm to 6:00pm each day.
But it appears that the protests may not happen as the government has suspended Covid-19 PCR testing at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) for fully vaccinated travelers entering the country.
However, citizens and foreign residents in Ghana, who are not fully vaccinated would undergo an antigen test upon arrival at KIA and will be offered vaccination there.
President Akufo-Addo while announcing the suspension said it is worth noting that the establishment of the Covid-19 testing infrastructure at KIA by Frontier Healthcare Services Ltd, at its own cost, has been key to Ghana’s ability to limit successfully the importation of the virus into Ghana through the airport.
Source: Ghana News
