Monrovia – The office of Senator George Weah (CDC-Montserrado County) says the political leader of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) has communicated with the executive committee of the party to allow its grievance and ethics Committee to seek clarification from Senator Dr. Peter Coleman (CDC-Grand Kru) about his alleged involvement in the JFK Hospital saga.
According to a press release from the office of the Senator, the communication to the ethics committee is meant to probe the Senator, who is a member of the party’s legislative caucus, on his monthly receipt of professional service fees from the John F. Kennedy Medical Center.
“Upon his return, Senator Weah will receive the report of the CDC Grievance and Ethics Committee and consider its recommendations,” the statement stated.
Recently in a statement from the office of the Grand Kru County Senator, he said allegations made on a local radio talk show about him receiving “kickbacks” from the hospital are misleading and false and does not in any way renege him from performing his oversight responsibility.
“Mr. Costa needs to know that besides being a legislator, Dr. Coleman is a trained and qualified surgeon and has been a professor of surgery at the A. M. Dogliotti College of Medicine/University of Liberia for more than 25 years. He is also a fellow of the West African college of Surgeons as well as a Professor at the Liberia Post-Graduate College of Surgeons”, stated the office of Senator Coleman.
He said his professional service the JFK has saved the Government of Liberia of thousands of dollars because if any expatriate had been recruited, it would cost the GOL not less than Ten Thousand United States (USS10, 000.00) a month.
In the statement from the Senator’s office, he affirmed his commitment to sustaining his lobby and advocacy among his colleagues in the Legislature for the JFK Medical Center, the Jackson F. Doe Hospital in Nimba County, the Phebe Hospital in Bong County, the Redemption Hospital in Montserrado County, and the C.H. Rennie Hospital in Margibi County amongst other key health facilities to be placed high on the scale of national priority in the arrangements and discussions for the National Budget for the fiscal year 2016/2017.
Weah, who is currently in Abuja, the Federal Republic of Nigeria to attend an extra-ordinary session of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) parliament, assures the Liberian public that upon his return to the country, he will continue his engagement with his colleagues, particularly the Senate’s health Committee of which he is a member, and the Montserrado Legislative caucus on resolving the situation at the JFK comprehensively with a goal to improve services and administrative accountability.
The management of JFK has come under public criticism over the latest leak that attributes the current management team of JFK to several financial improprieties and unprofessional practices by nurses and especially the placement of officials of government on the Hospital payroll, despite numerous complaints of low budgetary allocation for the support over the years.
Henry Karmo (0886522495) [email protected]