Liberia: How Did Sen. Jeremiah Koung’s ‘Private Hospital’ Get in National Budget?

 

— If the revelation from CENTAL is anything to go by, it could seriously damage Koung and the Unity Party's credibility. 

When former Vice President Joseph Boakai named Senator Jeremiah Koung as a running mate, he claimed that he had selected a person who shared his version of a better Liberia. 

But if findings from the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia's (CENTAL) State of Corruption Reports for 2021 and 2022 are anything to go by, Boakai's VP pick is an alleged fraudster who used his political influence to secure public funding to operate a private medical facility in his home county. 

The Nimba County Senator is said to have influenced the inclusion of the Esther and Jereline Medical Center (E&J) in the national budget during his time as Co-Chair of the House Committee on Ways, Means, and Finance. The Committee in question plays the lead role in the budget review process.

The medical center, which Koung claims to have built with a 2.4 million dollar investment, received public funding for each consecutive fiscal year between 2016 and 2021. That funding amounts to nearly half of Koung's investment. 

E&J received US$902,462 between 2016 to 2020, and US$50,000 in 2021, CENTAL reports. That amount surpasses the US$604,718  disbursed to J.J. Dossen Medical Center over the same period by a difference of nearly US$300,000. Dossen is a public facility in Harper, Maryland.

Then, in 2022, E&J received another US$125,000. 

Koung, in his response to the report, did not dispute the figures. The Senator admits that the medical center has received public funding but said the money came as subsidies for fuel and drugs from 2016 to 2018. He further claims that E&J is no longer private, but became a public medical facility as of 2019. Government, he says, assumes responsibility for overseeing the hospital's day-to-day operations. 

According to CENTAL’s report, “there is no available record of such transfer of ownership.”

Koung has, however, vehemently denied having influenced the budgetary allocation for Esther and Jereline Medical Center during his Co-Chairmanship over the House Ways, Means, and Finance Committee. 

According to Koung, the reports contained claims that are replete with false and misleading information, and at no point in time has he had control over the government's allocation of funds to the Esther and Jereline Medical Center.

“I built that hospital with 2.5 million dollars, and I have never received any check from the government and so the issue of influence as being told by CENTAL is a lie. I never influenced the inclusion of  Esther and Jereline  Medical Center in the budget as claimed by CENTAL,” Koung said in an Interview with the Daily Observer yesterday.

“The CENTAL report is untrue and may be looking at the political side of things. When the hospital was completed and operationalized in 2016, I asked the government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to take over it. But then President Sirleaf said the government will provide subsidies for fuel and drugs. I have never had a say in how the hospital is run and I have not benefited a dime from its operation.   The hospital was finally turned over to the government in 2019 and they have been running it since.”

If CENTAL’s allegations are true?

If CENTAL's allegations are true, it paints the picture of a Unity Party (UP) ticket on a steep climb to regain the bully pulpit. On one hand, the UP boasts a standard bearer who decries his former standard bearer as corrupt. On the other hand, it has an alleged profiteering politician claiming he had never benefited from the country's corrupt system. 

The former ruling party staked its credibility on Koung when Boakai tapped him as his running mate. Together, Rescue One and Two (as partisans call them) were to save the state from the graft and incompetence that have characterized the current administration. 

But the CENTAL allegation, it would play in President George Weah's favor, as Koung loses his ability to criticize Weah. More so, it gives ground to other opposition candidates who truly have a clean slate - if only for lack of opportunity to hold public office. 

Koung’s alleged case is but one among many across the government.  It appears to be one cell in a cancerous body. 

CENTAL says its State of the Corruption report, in which the Senator’s alleged misdeed is mentioned — highlights how the national budget has been misused to cater to the needs of officials — and how lawmakers use their positions for personal gain.

And Liberians are taking note. Confidence in all three branches of government slid downward in 2022 from  CENTAL’s last Corruption Report in 2021. From 30% of Liberians having confidence in the Executive branch in 2021, just 26% say this still does. The Legislature and the Judiciary are tied at a 22% confidence rating in 2022, down from 24% and 28%, respectively. 

The three branches carry the lowest confidence ratings among the various segments of society.  The media wins at 70%, followed by religious institutions, civil society, and public integrity institutions at 61%, 53%, and 44%, respectively. 

But Koung is adamant that his hand is clean and has done nothing wrong as claimed by CENTAL. He says that the CENTAL report is untrue and may be looking at the political side of things.

“The CENTAL report is untrue, false, and misleading.  The government made the decision in 2016 and there is nothing wrong with the government providing subsidies for a hospital that is providing free medical care for the people. I am running against the President and his party and if this allegation was true, it would have been used against me,” Koung says. 

“The hospital was turned over to the government in 2019 and they have been running it since.  I built the hospital for the people and not for money making.

 “I am still clearing the liabilities from constructing the hospital. I have never received any check from the government and so the issue of influence as being told by CENTAL is a lie. I never influenced the inclusion of  Esther and Jereline  Medical Center in the budget as claimed by CENTAL,” the Senator noted.

Is Koung  Legally Blind?

But Koung’s self-defense may fall flat, in the face of Liberia’s legal framework.  Article 34 of the Constitution of the Republic of Liberia (1986) prohibits any disbursement from the treasury without legislative enactment. 

It furthermore vests the House of Representatives with primary authority to originate legislation pertaining to public finances.  That authority is delegated to the House Committee on Ways, Means, and Finance, which then presents proposed amendments to the draft budget to the plenary. 

As Co-Chair, Koung presided over the Committee’s processes. And at no point is he reported to have reported any conflicts of interest, real or apparent, much less recused himself from discussions and decision-making on allocations to any sector, for any reason. 

This behavior violates Section 9 of the Code of Conduct for All Public Officials and Employees of the Government of Liberia. Section 9.6 prohibits the use of one’s public position to pursue private interests that may result in a conflict of interest. Section 9.11 requires the disclosure of said interests and recusal of oneself from discussions and decision-making affecting said claims. 

And while legislators are not explicitly required to declare their assets as stipulated under Section 10.1 of the Code, Koung could have done so. Such action, done in good faith and out of an abundance of transparency, might have mitigated the reputational risk that has now materialized with CENTAL’s disclosure. 

Meanwhile, Anderson Miamen, the Executive Director of CENTAL has defended his institution’s report — insisting that the Senator used his influence as a lawmaker — especially as co-chairperson on ways, means, and finance, to have his facility funded by and through the national budget. 

“This is the main issue. There can be no explanation for a private facility to be funded more than public health facilities. What criteria exist to provide funding to private facilities in the first place? Or persons with connections can just insert their facilities in the budget?  The report does not only cover Senator Jeremiah Koung,” Miamen told the Daily Observer.