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Former Deputy Minister of Finance, Hon. Cassiel Ato Forson has rubbished a Daily Guide publication Wednesday claiming he authorized the payment of the 30 "useless" ambulances supplied by Big Sea Limited to the Ministry of Health.

According to him, Daily Guide has done unsatisfactory work accusing him [Ato Forson] that he was the person who ‘approved’ the payment for the 30 ambulances, which have been described as unfit for the purpose for which they were imported.

Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Hon. Cassiel Ato Forson averred Daily Guide should have done due diligence to ascertain the truth in the ambulance saga before deciding to accuse him [Ato Forson] as the authority behind the purchase of the 30 ambulances.

He insisted that even the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government cannot pin blame on him since the only work he did was to sign a letter asking the Bank of Ghana to issue letters of credit on behalf of the Health Ministry (drawn from the budget of the Ministry of Health).

“....this government cannot point any accusing finger at me regarding the purchase of the ambulance from the company which did the supply...the contract of the Ministry of Health signed said that the Ministry of Finance should write a letter to Bank of Ghana to allow the Health Ministry to get letters of credit before the sector ministry can supply the ambulances”, he explained.

He further explained that the letters of credit which was issued by Bank of Ghana is not payment for the purchase of the ambulances but rather a guarantee to pay for the ambulances should the ministry of Health accept that what has been delivered meets all the specifications.

He added that letters of credit issued by the Bank of Ghana comes with conditionalities which includes specifications, quality test and other details in the contract; thus, “until the conditionality is met, the government will not pay for the ambulances”.

He reiterated that the letters of credit which empowered the Ministry of Health to go on with the contract was not signed by him as speculated by Daily Guide report; emphasizing that his outfit only wrote a request letter to Bank of Ghana to issue the letter of credit.

“It is a request letter by the then Ministry of Finance which I signed to the Bank of Ghana. I can assure you that Ministry of Finance has never paid any money to the ambulances; it is not the Ministry of Finance's responsibility to make payment. It was the technical responsibility of the Ministry of Health to know how to make the payment per details on the ambulances....after the Ministry of Finance has made the request to Bank of Ghana, our work was done”, he posited.

The 30 were the first of 200 ambulances procured by the government of Ghana through Big Sea Trading LLC in a contract signed on 19 December 2012.

The current Minister of Health Mr. Agyemang-Manu, who led a group of journalists to inspect the ambulances a few days ago, noted that although it has been established that 30 ambulances supplied by Big Sea Ltd. were not fit for the purpose, an amount of €2.4 million had been disbursed from the consolidated fund to pay for the ambulances.