Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has strongly criticized Frontiers Healthcare, the company responsible for COVID-19 testing at Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport during the pandemic, describing their gains as a “complete exploitation” of the state.
This reaction comes in response to data provided by the Ghana Airport Company Limited to JoyNews, which revealed that Frontiers received a substantial $84 million from testing international travelers arriving at the airport and an additional GH₵29 million ($3.5 million) from departure testing.
In stark contrast, Ghana received only a meager sum of less than $7 million from arrival testing and GH₵1.5 million ($180,000) from departure testing during the period Frontiers conducted the tests.
This disproportionate distribution of revenue indicates that Frontiers retained over 90% of the earnings, with 92% coming from arrival testing and a significant 94% from departure testing.
On the other hand, Ghana’s share was meager, representing less than 10% of the total revenue, with just 7% coming from arrival testing and a mere 6% from departure testing.
The significant disparity in revenue allocation has sparked public outrage, leading Mr. Ablakwa to submit a motion to parliament, calling for an impartial audit of the contentious testing agreement between Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) and Frontiers.
This revenue information was only provided after GACL was fined GH¢200,000 by the Right to Information (RTI) Commission for failing to comply with directives to provide access to the information.
During an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story, Mr. Ablakwa commended JoyNews for its persistence in obtaining this information but expressed his disappointment that it took a fine to compel the release of this crucial data.
“First of all, we must condemn the conduct of officials at the Ghana Airport Company Limited, the board, the management.
“They should bow their head in shame. The Ghana Airport Company belongs to all of us, you are taking the decision on all of our behalf. If you are not proud of the decisions you take when it goes public then don’t take those decisions,” he said.
He added “Our understanding of the matter is that the Minister of Transport has spoken about this matter not on one occasion but on two occasions before parliament. It is found in parliament’s Hansard. At the minister’s vetting before the appointment committee, these questions came up and then he dealt with them. … so the matters were in the public domain.”
He mentioned that the Airport Company’s perspective was to reply to the RTI Commission, clarifying that the requested information was already publicly available and accessible to the media. However, the Commission held a different perspective on the issue.
He further explained that, following discussions with the RTI Commission, GACL ultimately decided to respond to JoyNews’ request by providing the information.
However, Raymond Acquah from JoyNews, who interrupted the discussion, contradicted Mr. Adom Otchere’s claim that the information was in the public domain, citing the response their team received as evidence to the contrary.
According to Mr Acquah, “Specifically, the response on September 19 was that it was exempt and then they proceeded to tell us some of the reasons it could not be given to us. Which includes that they were not the ones who did the testing and collection of money at the Airport.
“They didn’t say that the information was in the public domain. They also proceeded to say that they were not privy to that particular list of reasons.”