George Bush’s $17m Pledge To Fight Malaria Is Not New

Government officials have come out to say that, the $17m grant that President Bush gave to Ghana is not a new grant. They say, what President Bush did, was to reaffirm the grant. When President Bush was in the country during a three-day visit, an impression was created by government officials and a section of the media that the grant was new. It was made to look as though, the grant was made while President Bush was in the country. However, the Programmes officer of the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) Naa Korkor Allotey, speaking to Joy News this afternoon, denied that the grant was new. She said the amount was the allocation that was made to the NMCP last year December at the launch of the malaria initiative. Naa Allotey’s position immediately questioned the claims of a grant from President Bush. Shortly after myjoyonline carried the story, Dr. Constance Barte-Plange, Programmes Manager of the NMCP called our offices to set the records straight. She told myjoyonline that there was no controversy over the grant, saying the grant is a three-year grant to help fight malaria in Ghana. She said, the $17m yearly grant is being disbursed through the USAID and that last year’s grant has been disbursed and some programmes under the initiative are about to begin. But in the evening of Thursday February 21, 2008, the Deputy Information Minister, Frank Agyekum, in an interview with Joy News admitted that the grant indeed was not made during President Bush’s visit to Ghana.