The Ministry of Health and wellness spun a web of lies to cover up how it botched a Covid-19 vaccine sales agreement with Moderna – Sunday Standard investigations have revealed.
Botswana which on 3rd June 2021 was among the first seven countries in the world to sign a purchase agreement with Moderna and to receive approval for its emergency use, is the only country in the group that has not received its first consignment of the life-saving vaccine.
The Sunday Standard revealed two months ago that the initial 3rd June 2021 agreement between Botswana and Moderna, the biotechnology company pioneering the Covid-19 vaccine collapsed after the Ministry of Health and Wellness missed the July 3rd 2021 deadline to have paid the Moderna invoice for supply of the vaccine.
The ministry’s PR flack immediately shot back: “The ministry, advises theSunday Standard/The Telegraph newspaper to desist from misinforming members of the public about a matter so sensitive and dear to their lives, as COVID-19 vaccines.”
Instead of owning up to the mess up and moving on, the Ministry of Health and Wellness built a stone wall and defended it with a series of lies.
In a press statement dated 30th July 2021, rebutting the article by the Sunday Standard, the ministry lied that the Moderna vaccine would be delivered in August.
“The ministry wishes to assure members of the public that it still expects the arrival of vaccines in August 2021, including Moderna, as was so elaborately declared by Minister Dr Dikoloti in Parliament this morning. In the event that there are any changes, the ministry will communicate as it always does with any developments in the COVID-19 pandemic.”
This week the lie finally caught up with them. Two months later the Moderna vaccine has still not arrived. First, the Ministry lied that “Minister Dr Dikoloti elaborately declared in Parliament that” the Moderna vaccine consignment was expected in Botswana in August.
In fact, Minister Dikoloti had stated that, “we do hope that a significant number of vaccines will be received between August and September from different sources according to our schedule. We are expecting to receive at least the following within those two months: Johnson & Johnson 93000 doses from COVAX facility; Pfizer 81,900 doses from COVAX facility; Sinovac 61,200 doses from COVAX facility, Johnson & Johnson 1,152654 from AVATT facility”.
Moderna was not in the schedule and the Ministry of Health and Wellness was aware, but they went on to lie that a Moderna consignment would be arriving in Botswana in August.
The ministry lied again in the press statement, claiming that, “the ministry wishes to state for a fact that its agreement with Moderna for the supply of 500 000 doses, still stands. The two have a legally binding agreement that remains in force. The ministry further states that it has not reneged on making any payments to the company. Instead, the ministry has paid a total of USD 4, 332, 000 as part payment for the 500 000 doses procured. Payment of the balance is currently being processed. As stated by the Minister of Health and Wellness Hon. Dr Edwin G. Dikoloti in Parliament this morning, the ministry expects delivery of Moderna doses from August 2021.”
At the time, on July 30th the ministry was aware that the agreement had lapsed. According to the agreement signed on 3rd June, the ministry was to have paid USD 4, 332, 000 being the full payment of the 500 000 doses by July 3rd and Moderna was to have delivered the vaccine by July 15th.
Instead, by Thursday 29th July 2021, the Ministry of Health and Wellness was still trying to raise money from the Private Sector Committee to pay off the Moderna invoice. Sunday Standard investigations have intercepted an e-mail message from Debswana’s Tefo Molosiwa to the Private Sector Committee dated 29th July 2021 stating, “kindly find attached an invoice for the payment of Q3 and Q4 Moderna shipments. The GoB needs commitment from us tomorrow. Could you kindly confirm your participation and amount to Bonny Thebenyane”, Debswana Company Secretary.
With the initial agreement of 3rd June 2021 having lapsed as reported by the Sunday Standard and denied by the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the Government of Botswana on 24th August 2021 entered into a new agreement with Moderna to secure the 500 000 doses with funding support from De Beers Group, Debswana and Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB).
A press statement from the De Beers group of companies stated that, “De Beers Group, Debswana and DTCB’s financial contribution has funded 40 per cent of the cost of the vaccines. Due to the ongoing tightness in global supply for vaccines, the doses will be delivered in phases in accordance with the terms of the agreement between the Government of Botswana and Moderna Switzerland GmbH.”
More lies and deflections followed this week as the Ministry of Health and Wellness twisted in a windstorm of its own making. Although the agreement with Moderna which is currently in force was only signed on August 24, the Ministry of Health and wellness spokesperson, Christopher Nyanga told the Sunday Standard this week that, “It is true that the Government of Botswana has signed an agreement with Moderna for the sale of 500 000 doses of the Moderna vaccine. As of now, no delivery has yet been made. The first delivery consignment was expected from August 2021 but it has not been possible owing to the high demand for COVID-19 vaccines which has outstripped supply. The ministry has been in touch with Moderna and we have been assured that the first consignment of no less than 50 000 doses will now be delivered in October 2021.”
The first six countries which signed a purchase agreement with Moderna alongside Botswana are; The United States of America. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Moderna for emergency use on 18th December 2020. By 19th December 2020 Moderna had moved vaccines from its US manufacturing sites to distribution locations; Health Canada authorised Moderna for emergency use on 23rd December 2020 and on 24th December 2020 Canada received its first shipment of Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccines; On 5th January 2021 Moderna was authorised for use by the Israeli Ministry of Health and on 7th January 2021 the first consignment of Moderna vaccine landed in Israel; on 3rd February 2021, the Health Sciences Authority granted interim authorisation for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to be used in Singapore for people aged 18 years and above and Singapore received its first shipment of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine on 17th February 2021; On 5th May 2021 the Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration cleared Moderna for emergency use in the country. The Moderna vaccine was scheduled to arrive in Philippine on 21st June 2021 but there were issues with transportation and storage facilities. The doses were only delivered in early July.
On 3rd June 2021, the Botswana Medicines Regulatory Authority granted Moderna emergency use authorization in adults aged 18 years and older. Botswana, however, has still not received its first consignment of Moderna vaccines; On 9th August 2021 the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) provisionally approved Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in Australia. On 18th September 2021, Australia received its first consignment of Moderna vaccine doses.
Sunday Standard can reveal that the Ministry of Health and Wellness isn’t a straight-arrow ministry. Its lodestar is covering up, propped up by denial and deception.
The Sunday Standard revealed last month how the Ministry of Health and wellness, in an attempt to cover up its blunders, tried to hide information that the deadly and highly infectious Delta variant, first discovered in India was already in Botswana.
This was after more than a dozen plane passengers from India infected with the Covid-19 strain managed to slip into Botswana because of the ministry’s lax screening process. The Ministry allowed the passengers into Botswana without ordering quarantine or administering PCR tests, at a time when India was at the height of its second Covid-19 wave driven by the Delta variant that wiped up to 600 Indians daily.
The Presidential Task Team which insisted on strict screening of passengers from high risk countries wrote to the Ministry of Health and Wellness early April complaining that they were kept in the dark about the Delta variant in Botswana until the infection had developed into a runaway train.
Sunday Standard has turned up information and statistics that following March 2021 when 11 plane passengers from India were allowed into the country with neither a PCR test administered on them nor a quarantine ordered, the country’s infection rate and death toll sky-rocketed to unprecedented rates.
