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The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has described as strange, the ministry of agriculture’s request for 12 vehicles to help them fight the outbreak of bird flu in Ghana.

The Executive Secretary of the GII, Vitus Azeem, explained that the request is a misplaced priority since all regional and a fair number of district veterinary offices have vehicles at their disposal.

“It sounds strange because almost all regional veterinary offices have official cars and I think a good number of District Veterinary Offices also have cars so if there is an outbreak of bird flu, I don’t think the best approach is to look for cars to address it,” he remarked.

It emerged on Thursday that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture had made a request to Parliament for funds to purchase 30 cars to help their trips around the country to contain the spread of the bird flu pandemic.

The minority spokesperson on Finance, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei angrily accused the ministry of taking advantage of the situation to purchase vehicles.

In response, a Deputy Agric Minister, Dr. Hannah Bissiw told Citi News, they only requested for 12 cars and not 30.

She defended their request with the explanation that in 2007 when there was an outbreak of bird flu in Ghana, the European Union (UN) donated 18 vehicles and 35 motorbikes to Ghana therefore it not a misplace priority.

Vitus Azeem suggested that the emphasis should rather be on getting drugs to contain the further spread of the disease.

“We should be looking at drugs; we should be looking at strengthening the capacity of the officers and other staff to address the bird flu,” he said.

The GII boss stressed that the Ministry “should be looking at preventive matters because I don’t think that cars are the best things for us to do now…”

“This only shows that we have misplaced priorities and I don’t think that is the best fight against the bird flu.”