Rep Domah Wants MFDP Disburse Funds For Health Facilities In Nimba

-Expresses Disappointment In Delay

Reuben Sei Waylaun

Nimba County electoral district Seven Representative Roger Domah is urging the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) to disburse funding for health facilities in his district if the country is serious for the fight against the Coronavirus.
Addressing Legislative Reporters Friday at his Capitol Building office, Representative Domah said the Saclepea Comprehensive Health Center and the Bahn Health Center all in his district have allotments in the national budget, but are yet to recieve significant portion of said amount.
According to him, the Liberian leader should have addressed the health sector first before any order thing. “If you go around the country health wise, we are not prepared to fight this virus,” he said.
The Unity Party stalwart also lamented that health facilities in the district have only received less than 20% of allotment for them in the national budget.
“In my mind, I thought the President would have think of the health facilities first to see how those facilities can be prepared first to fight against the virus,” he said.
Representative Domah wants the Liberian Chief Executive to prevail on the Ministry of Finance to ensure that allotments to those health facilities are disbursed speedily to prepare them for the fight against the virus.
“They are sitting on the funds and don’t want to release it. Sometimes when they say give the people US$15,000.00, they will reduce it to US$4,000.00,” he said.
He disclosed that out of the US$150,000.00 allotted to the Saclepea Comprehensive Health Center, only US$4,800.00 has been received, saying it is ‘ridiculous’
“Bahn Health Center has US$65,000.00 in the budget, they have received around US$3,000.00. So, the Ministry of Finance should go ahead and disburse the funds to help them get prepared,” the Nimba District Seven lawmaker added.
He said he welcomes the state of emergency, but said there is a need to think about the people and said the restrictions on the movement of people and social distancing very important because it will help with the elimination of the virus from the country.
Representative Domah further said some of the suggestions from the Liberian leader are good, but the technical details are lacking and will be looked at carefully.
Although the National Legislature has unanimously voted through a joint resolution for economic stimulus package and others for Liberians during this SOE, but Representative Domah earlier suggested that the stimulus package remains behind for technical details to be worked on before endorsement.
However, The Nimba County lawmaker has expressed disappointment over the alleged security brutalities against peaceful citizens since the declaration of the State of Emergency by President George Weah on April 8, 2020.
“I think some of them are been brutal and most of them are very unreasonable. This is not a physical war and we just graduated from war and most of our people weren’t demobilized and if you come and use excessive force, it will bring back the war memories. I think the security apparatus needs to be very civil. You cannot fight this various with force, otherwise people will think that something under it,” he lamented.
Representative Domah further added ” We thought the security apparatus will be talking to the citizens so we understand and together we can fight it, but the issue of using brutalities as been alleged, I strongly condemn that.”
The Unity Party lawmaker has been one of the lawmakers who had earlier suggested that the time for citizens to be home as mandated by the president 3:00pm daily to be changed to 6:00pm after fetching for food for their families.
He wants details for the payment of loans to business people. He sees it as a breeding grounds for some people to enrich themselves.
Meanwhile, Representative Domah said the payment of money to LEC that doesn’t cover the entire country is suspicious when the government is not paying money to health facilities across the country.
He has warned against politicizing the fight against the coronavirus in the country, but called for collective efforts.