Monrovia – A total of US$500,000 allocated by the George Weah-led government toward fighting the deadly Coronavirus pandemic is nearly depleted, according to a spreadsheet breakdown of how the money has been disbursed, obtained by FrontPageAfrica.
“We have taken care to ensure full financial accountability during these processes. This has been some of the issues. People want to spend money anyhow because of emergency and when audit comes, they scratch their heads. We just concluded a financial management meeting with all stakeholders and with the GAC on the fund structure. MOH and NPHIL are the entities responsible to account for funds under the financial management structure.”
Samuel Tweah, Finance and Economic Planning Minister
Nearly all of the money spent so far have gone toward the running of Precautionary Observation Centers, selected places, mainly hotels the government has earmarked for quarantining and treatment of suspected and confirmed cases.
Finance and Economic Planning Minister Samuel Tweah, when contacted about the depletion said, the GOL has paid US$750K to date and will be transferring $US1 million this week. “We have taken care to ensure full financial accountability during these processes. This has been some of the issues. People want to spend money anyhow because of emergency and when audit comes, they scratch their heads. We just concluded a financial management meeting with all stakeholders and with the GAC on the fund structure. MOH and NPHIL are the entities responsible to account for funds under the financial management structure.”
The World Bank recently approved a $7.5 million International Development Association (IDA) financing to help Liberia respond to the threat posed by the Coronavirus outbreak.
The financing consists of a $3.75 million grant and $3.75 million concessional IDA credit, will strengthen the Government of Liberia’s immediate capacity to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak and in the longer-term, strengthen its response to disease outbreaks and emergencies. This complements ongoing support provided through the Second Regional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement (REDISSE II) project which has made available up to $9.5 million for the response.
It is unclear whether the the World Bank contribution is part of the monies being allocated for the POCs but according to the spreadsheet in possession of FrontPageAfrica, there are a total of eleven Precautionary Observation Centers (POC’s). However, the names of those centers are not spelled out.
Dr. Mosoko Fallah, head of the National Public Health Institute (NPHIL) when contacted for a response to this story referred FPA to Ms. Nowu Howard, Deputy Minister of Health for Administration, who redirected our inquiry to Dr. Fallah.
The lack of transparency suggest infighting and politicking is overshadowing emphasis on the more important issues of testing and contact tracing.
Precautionary Centers Without Names?
The breakdown of the expenditure is as follows:
Precautionary Observation Center No. 1 is allocated $US85,000.00; POC No. 2 is allocated US$US128,961.80, POC No. 3 is allocated $US65, 568.55, POC No. 4 is allocated $US31,000.00, POC No. 5 is allocated $US14,000.00, POC No. 6 is allocated $US18,480.00, POC No. 7 is allocated US$20,000.00, POC No. 8 is allocated $US10,528.36, POC No. 9 is allocated $US7,232.40 and POC No. 10 is allocated US$6,822.40. A POC No. 11 is listed but no amount is noted.
Last week, a few of those POC’s mainly hotels being used as quarantine centers complained to FPA that they had not been paid by the government.
The hotels – Kailondo Hotel, John Gbessay Resort, Bless One Hotel, Palm Spring, Executive Inn and Golden Key are among several hotels that have been used since mid-March this year as quarantine centers for people suspected for Covid-19.
The hotels expressed concerns about the delays in payments by government, which is putting strain on the operation of their businesses.
According to several contract papers, seen by FPA, signed between the Ministry of Health and these respective hotels, the government is obligated to pay for the use of their facilities.
Some of the hotel managements told FPA that the delay is pushing them to the limits having already spent thousands of dollars to pre-finance services rendered for quarantine purpose.
Cllr. George Kailondo, who said his contract with the government ended since April 13, told FPA via phone that the situation has caused him not to pay his “over 50 employees”.
While eleven Precautionary Observation Centers are listed on the spreadsheet, the novel coronavirus has spread across at least seven counties in Liberia with Montserrado County remaining the most affected. As of April 30, 2020, there is an overall of 152 confirmed cases in Liberia with 18 deaths, 45 recoveries and 746 contacts being traced.
Nimba, Margibi, Maryland, Sinoe, Grand Kru, Rivergee and Maryland Counties each have a recorded case except for Nimba and Margibi which have recorded 5 and 3 cases, respectively. In the absence of the names of the specific POCs being used, it is difficult to know how the money is actually being disbursed and what the main priorities are for the health authorities in the wake of numerous concerns that health workers are receiving the short end of the stick due to the lack of incentives, compensations and protective gears.
Infighting & Politicking
A senior health official, speaking on condition of anonymity Wednesday told FrontPageAfrica that part of the reason authorities are struggling to contain the outbreak is due to infighting amongst authorities of the Ministry of Health, the National Public Health Institute of Liberia, and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning over the expenditure of the COVID-19 funds.
An apparent battle over for the scrambling of donor funds and misuse of the national budget.
The Ministry of Health, according to sources, is said to be adamant that it should control the money, do the procurement and disburse payments based on the minister’s request.
According to the source, the MoH is insisting that they have their own finance section that can handle the funds.
The MoH has previously had bad records in managing funds.
A senior administration official said Wednesday, that due to massive attention from donors and stakeholders, both the MOH and MFDP should avoid direct purchasing and procurement. “Instead, the MFDP should do the disbursement based on approval from Mary Broh, head of the National Coronavirus Response Team for accountability and transparency purposes. NPHIL can submit allocations and request for what is needed so that Broh can provide the items to be purchased or provided. Technical approval should squarely fall on Brown’s lap. “I hope Broh will put her feet down on this for the health ministry to stay out of the financial operations and only follow the supervisory role for check and balance.”
In the absence of a breakdown of the POCs, some are finding it difficult to gauge how many patients are occupying them.
Compounding the issue is the apparent sidelining of Dr. Fallah, the head of the NPHIL.
Last month, Broh left out Dr. Fallah from the revised COVID-19 National Response team.
NPHIL emerged out of the 2014 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic which highlighted the need for the establishment of a public health institute in Liberia, which supports national health delivery services. With the plan to revitalize health services in the country, it was essential for the Government of Liberia to establish a National Public Health Institute.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, NPHIL was mandated to strengthen existing infection prevention and control efforts, laboratories, surveillance, infectious disease control, public health capacity building, response to outbreaks, and monitoring of diseases with epidemic potential.
Dr. Fallah’s omission raised a few eyebrows.
Over the past few days, NPHIL for example has been unable to conduct testing because workers at the testing labs, complaining about lack of money and food have been threatening a go-slow. “Many of us leave our families at home and come here with grave risks, but we are not being paid,” said one worker who preferred anonymity for this report.
President Weah recently tipped Madam Broh to head the National Response Coordinator for the Executive Committee on Coronavirus (ECOC) in Liberia, making her responsible for providing supervision toward a single set of national strategic objectives for defeating the Coronavirus disease. Madam Broh was also tasked with coordinating the National COVID-19 multi-sectorial response plan, in coordination with the United Nations (UN), donor partners, Ministry of Health and National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL).
Although the Ministry of Health recently rubbished news reports, insinuating that a change has occurred in the structure of the Incident Management System (IMS) announced by the President through Madam Broh.
In a statement signed by the Communications Consultant of the Health Ministry, Mr. Sorbor George, the Helath Ministry clarified that there is absolutely no change to the IMS structure. However, Fallah has apparently been left in the cold and aides say his unhappiness is showing.
Dr. Fallah, according to sources, did not help his own situation. Dr. Fallah, who was in charge from the start is accused of trying to politicise NPHIL and was influential in working with Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee for the controversial 6,000 contact tracers, a move which angered donors and stakersholders.
Fallah is also accused of sidelining close aides to his predecessor, Tolbert Nyenswah whom he feels are not loyal to him, and pushing them off the grill while putting the effort to fight the pandemic in jeopardy.
Donors, unhappy with Fallah, reportedly prevailed on President Weah to tweak the response team.
The infighting, accountability and transparency issues appear to be stalling Liberia’s quest to beat the virus.
Testing Lab Tech on Go Slow?
Over the past few days, NPHIL for example has been unable to conduct testing because workers at the testing labs, complaining about lack of money and food have been threatening a go-slow. “Many of us leave our families at home and come here with grave risks, but we are not being paid,” said one worker who preferred anonymity for this report.
The last Site report by NPHIL was April 27, 2020 showing a total of 152 confirmed cases, 18 deaths, 45 recoveries, 89 active cases and 746 contacts being traced.
The lack of testing has been attributed to the unresolved issues of testing lab technicians.
Additionally, workers at the lab have been unsettled due to a raid by the National Security Agency (NSA) who stormed the facility this week to interrogate lab technicians at the NPHIL in a bid to get to the bottom of perceived leaks of testing results from the lab to the media.
The raid which was confirmed to FPA by Mr. Henric Pearson, head of the NSA, comes amid accusations that some staffers have been passing on test results of high-profile officials of government to the media.
As a result of the uncertainty, NPHIL has been unable to announce results for a few days not.
Several Liberians who say they have been tested are yet to receive their results as a result of the ongoing impasse.
Donors Counting on GOL for Transparency
Senator Abraham Darius Dillon(Liberty Party, Montserrado) in a Facebook post Friday lamented that it has been two weeks since the legislature approved the State of Emergency authorizing the Executive to proceed with available funding from the World Food Program for feeding and World Bank/IMF for medical needs, including additional incentives especially for Health Workers. “Since then, and sadly too, not much has been done. No purchase of needed medical items to fight the disease, no food distribution to our people, no “free electricity”, etc. Had we not signed to approve, the Executive would be pitting the people against the Legislature by now,” the Senator said.
As Liberia continues to struggle in its quest to battle COVID-19, some stakeholders are growing increasingly concerned that the infighting could affect Liberia’s ability to fight the pandemic. More importantly, the issue of transparency and accountability remains a potent point of concern for donors: How their funds will be utilized.
Alyson Grunder, Chargé d’Affaires at the US embassy said recently: “We count on the government ministries and agencies as well as the civil society organizations with whom we work to maintain the highest standards of accountability and transparency. We want our resources to have maximum impact and to complement the efforts and initiatives of the government and of other donor partners and organizations.”
