Pressure Mounts At Phebe Hospital

-As Dr. Sibley’s Job Is On The Line

By Esau J. Farr

Fresh reports from Bong County speak of renew pressure on the Administrative Director of the Phebe Hospital, Dr. Jefferson Sibley to step down in the wake of independent audit.

According to an ELBC Correspondent in the central Liberian County (Bong), some workers of the hospital and local county officials are calling for the recusal of Dr. Sibley in the name of financial transparency at the hospital.

Phebe Hospital has in recent times been at a center of controversy with claims and counter allegations of low budget support and misappropriation of budgetary allotments to the hospital for its operations.

It all started when report emerged linking the hospital to a planned shutdown as a result of lack of fuel and essential drugs to adequately run the hospital in the midst of claim by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) that as of the time the report was emerging, the hospital was having in its account over two hundred fifty thousand (US$250,000) United States Dollars.

Finance authorities wondered at the time why such amount could be in the covers of the hospital and run short of essential drugs and fuel to run the hospital generator to carry out sugery and minor operations thus forcing nurses and PAs to use mobile phone lights to treat patients at night.

In another allegation, Bong County District number three (#3) Representative, Josiah Marvin Cole, alleged that the hospital has three separate payrolls.

He promised to resign as a lawmaker if he fails to produce them challenging hospital authorities to deny his claims something that is yet to be seen.

The situation has led to the suspension of four key persons at the hospital pending an independent audit authorized by the government of Liberia.

Those suspended are: the Controller General, Human Resource Manager, Financial Officer and Administrator.

The concerned workers and local stakeholders are calling for the recusal of Dr. Sibley on grounds that he is the Chief Administrator of the hospital under whose administration all the allegations of financial malpractices are being reported including the alleged disappearance of one million United State (US$1m) Dollars. TNR