By Mabinty M. Kamara
The management of Eco Med, a medical diagnostics and laboratory facility operating in Freetown has in a press statement denounced claims made by a member of parliament that the hospital should be a government property that has been converted into private use by some individuals.
The Tonkolili district Paramount Chief Member of Parliament, Bai Kurr Kanagbaro Sanka 111, on Thursday 20 May 2021 during debate on the Treaty for the Establishment of the African Medicines Agency which has already been ratified by parliament said the government was supposed to have 60% shares, while the public and the Ghanaian medical doctors have 20% each.
“I can give you documents. It is owned by the government of Sierra Leone. The Norwegian government gave us 60% of that.” he added.
The Paramount Chief also stated: “Somebody manipulated and took it over, making millions of Leones every day. It is not owned by the so-called Owner.”
He said a country like Sierra Leone does not have key scanning facilities and that the hospital was offering the services at an expensive rate beyond the reach of many Sierra Leoneans.
“You pay Five million Leones to have MRL at ECOMED. And I can tell you definitely that ECOMED is owned by the government of Sierra Leone. It has been seized over,” he claimed.
The statement signed by the hospital Proprietor, Jihad Swaid denounced the allegation made by the MP referring to it as baseless, “unfounded” and of bearing no connection to the truth. They are simply dramatic fictional misrepresentations. As such, this undoubtedly leaves much to the imagination as to the real intention for such utterances,” the statement reads.
It added that the hospital is a wholly owned private sector venture and that it has never received any fund from the government nor from any third party that was directly or indirectly meant for the government.
However, after the claim by the Member of Parliament, Speaker of Parliament, Dr. Abass Bundu, ordered him to produce the document to prove his submission and hand it over to the Committee on Health and further instructed the committee to report to the House of Parliament within four weeks on the allegations.
The hospital management therefore said that they were looking forward to the document which the MP had promised to produce to support his claims against the facility.
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