GHc1 million to buy condoms<\/a><\/strong><\/span> to control the spread of HIV\/AIDS in the country.<\/p>\nOfficials of the Health Ministry and the Ghana Health Service on Monday had a hard time explaining to members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) circumstances under which such amount was used to buy condoms in a bid to curb HIV\/AIDS.<\/p>\n
The Chairman of the PAC, Kwaku Agyemang was surprised saying \u201cI want to be educated because I wonder why a huge sum of GHc1, 450,000 will be spent on male condoms as if we are sponsoring people\u2019s pleasures\u2026why should such an expenditure be part of your budget?\u201d<\/p>\n
However, it turned out that the amount was funded by donor partners.<\/p>\n
Atta Kyea further explained on Eyewitness News<\/strong> that the amount could have been used for projects to boost healthcare in the country.<\/p>\n\u201cPeople should be responsible in their indulgences and I would rather say that we should send this money to other areas of health like malaria containment…but to say that somebody wants to have his pleasure, he is of full age, he is not sufficiently sensible and responsible and you have unprotected sex, when we know that AIDS is around, then it\u2019s some kind of indulgence that the state should not be too much involved. The education should have drawn people to their senses by now.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like we saying that you are not going to work but we will pay you all the same, so there is a sense of irresponsibility in that kind of budgeting which I will discourage if it comes to the floor of Parliament,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Free condoms wise<\/strong><\/p>\nMeanwhile, also speaking on Eyewitness News<\/strong>, a ranking member of the PAC and MP for Salaga, Ibrahim Dey Abukabakar said the decision was a wise one because it has helped in reducing the HIV\/AIDS prevalence rate in the country.<\/p>\nHe said \u201cwe didn\u2019t buy the condoms, it was provided by donor partners, all that we needed to do was to request for it. In the first place government didn\u2019t spend a penny on the condoms.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPrevention is better than cure. Don\u2019t you see that the percentage of infection of AIDS has reduced in the country; don\u2019t you see that the supply of condoms has contributed to this? So if you tell me that the supply of condoms is for pleasure, I beg to differ because it has succeeded in preventing a lot of venereal diseases that the government would have spent money to cure in the hospital,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n
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