The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning wishes to dispel a very malicious and unfounded rumor circulating, that Minister Amara Konneh was tested and diagnosed positive of the deadly Ebola virus and currently in quarantine.
This rumor is untrue and has already been dismissed by authorities of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Liberia. The Ministry insists that neither the Minister nor any Ministry officials have been quarantined, as being falsely rumored.
The Ministry has notwithstanding, taken precautionary steps to allow all other staff, including officials of the Ministry that might have interacted with Mr. Sawyer, to remain home and observe their health conditions for 21 days starting July 20th, as prescribed by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
The Ministry stresses that “no tests have yet been conducted on any official or staff, as any such test, without early symptoms, would result in a negative outcome.â€
At the moment, no other Ministry of Finance staff has been reported ill since July 18th the last time the late Sawyer was seen in the vicinity of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
For the records, Minister Amara Konneh last interacted with Mr. Patrick Sawyer on June 20th 2014, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea at the Summit of the African Peer Review Mechanism on the margins of the Africa Union Summit.
Notwithstanding this history of interaction, the Minister continues to lead a robust effort to ensure maximum public sensitization and awareness to heighten the fight against Ebola and has announced measures including shutting down the Ministry for a day and allowing staff who feel unsafe to remain home.
The Ministry remains committed to the fight and no degree of misguided and uniformed public sentiments will dampen the entity’s resolve to support the fight of this deadly virus that is killing our people.
Meanwhile, the MFDP announces the creation of a Trust Fund to manage the Ebola outbreak in Liberia. The fund is established at the Central Bank of Liberian (Act No. 022530000215/ Ebola Trust Fund) under the guidance of the MFDP, with supervision from the National Task Force on Ebola.
The government of Liberia through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning in cooperation with the Central Bank of Liberia has contributed an initial US$5 million to the funds, demonstrating the seriousness it attached to the fight of this disease and therefore encourages all partners including donors, private sector actors and ordinary citizens to contribute.
In order to ensure that the funds are used effectively and that the goal is achieved, the President has authorized the Minister of Finance to appoint a Special Comptroller General and a small team of accounting and procurement specialists to manage the FUND.
This team will work directly under the National TASK FORCE to ensure that resources are provided expeditiously without any bottleneck in supporting those on the frontline to combat this epidemic.
All procurement and logistical decisions will be made at the task force level. The purpose of this special team is to ensure that after the program is over, a full accounting can be given for all resources collected and used in this undertaking.
The Liberian government has contributed US$5 million to the fund as its contribution but encourages the public, donor community and friendly governments to make contributions to the fund.
At the end of the program, a detailed report shall be provided and the General Auditing Commission (GAC) will be asked to perform an audit and results communicated to the nation.