By Crispina Cummings
Parliament in Sierra Leone has moved a motion to set up a committee that will monitor funds meant to contain the Ebola virus in the country.
Majority leader, Ibrahim Bundu, said it was necessary for a special committee to be established “to monitor implementing partners and public officials who have responsibilities in the fight against Ebola.”
His was commenting on presentations by the minister of labour who was addressing parliament the Minimum Wage Act 2014, which provided for all public and private workers in the country to be entitled to a minimum sum of Le 500, 000 each month.
“A lot of money has been disbursed to public officials and nongovernmental organisations as implementing partners. They need to be monitored so that monies will go where they are supposed to,” he said.
Minority leader Dr. Bernadette Lahai said if a select committee were not set up to monitor implementing partners “the country will be fighting a lost course.” She referred to the country’s civil war during which a lot of organisations were entrusted with monies to help end the war.
“After the war all those monies could not be accounted for,” she claimed, adding that the country’s health institutions should be strengthened after the current Ebola outbreak so that they could be in place to tackle any such outbreak in future.
Minister of labour, Mathew Teambo, called on the military to double their efforts in the fight against Ebola because the police alone could not do the fight.
Hassan Sesay, MP of Constituency 59 in Tonkolili district, said the army was needed in the battle against Ebola because indiscipline was inherent in the Sierra Leonean community and it resulted to the loss of many lives.
“People just don’t want to take instructions from authorities,” said MP Sesay.
© Politico 04/11/14
