A fortnight ago President George Weah dismissed Dr. Mosoka Fallah as Director General of the National Public (NPHIL) following an investigation conducted by a presidential investigative team headed by Dr. Linda Birch, head of the Liberia Medical and Dental Council, on alleged irregularities in relations to the fight against COVID-19.
The investigative committee found that Dr. Fallah willfully refused to attend meetings of the Incident Management System for several weeks because he was not appointed to head one of the COVID-19 Response Pillars of the IMS.
Dr. Fallah also, according to the investigative findings, developed a parallel system and protocol contrary to the IMS policies which he had endorsed.
He also unilaterally started approving certificates for travelers without endorsement by the IMS. The committee stated that Dr. Fallah admitted that he did not inform his staff that this was not a system endorsed by the IMS, but indicated that it was a convenient system to save the country from the lapses of delayed results.
The dismissed Director General was also found liable of issuing letters, instead of certificates, to 14 Nigerian diplomats to leave the country under the instruction of the Secretary of the Minister [not specified] even though the secretary is not a member of the IMS to instruct him to do such. The letters were issued pending the outcome of COVID-19 test results.
He also issued hundreds of letters for traveling without approval of the IMS which the committee viewed as putting the country and the whole world at further risk. The investigative report indicated that the about 50 percent of the letters were physically signed by him while others were electronically signed by his office staff.
Dr. Fallah was also nailed for unilaterally dismissing three employees without the knowledge of the Human Resource manager.
The investigative committee stated that the “findings are in flagrant and complete systematic breaches in the reporting procedures of COVID-19 results and violation of policies and ethics of the IMS, thus leading to mistrust in the government’s response to the COVID pandemic and presenting a negative image of the country globally”.
The dismissal of the former NPHIL boss was recommended by the investigative team headed by Dr. Linda Birch who was mandated by the President to investigate reports of irregularities at the NPHIL.
But weeks following Dr. Fallah’s dismissal, GNN Liberia has uncovered some hidden truths behind the former NPHIL Director General dismissal.
According to multiple sources closed to this outlet, the dismissal of the NPHIL boss was not just on ‘Irregularities’ at NPHIL, as being stated by the investigative committee report, but noted that the dismissal was a result of his refusal to allow huge funds to be siphoned for the wrong reasons by some higher ups for personal gains instead of the fight against COVID-19.
The sources hinted that Dr. Fallah was on many occasions pressured to give in but he stood his grounds professionally, stating the funds provided by the international community to help with the COVID-19 fight in Liberia were not for personal gains. “The NPHIL boss constant refusal to give monies to some higher ups landed him in trouble with them, thus they decided to remove him as Director General in order to have a free ride of siphoning monies intended for the fight against COVID-19,” our sources added.
Effort to contact the former NPHIL Director General by the GNN to have a saying in this allegation proved unsuccessful.
Investigation continues
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