The Technical Assistant to the Commission, Fairnoh Gbilah says the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Liberia further support calls to transform the relief commission to an autonomous agency. The Commission is currently an arm of the ministry of Internal Affairs.

 He said in an interview in Monrovia recently that if the country is to be fully prepared to rapidly respond to any future outbreak of disaster, then there is a compelling need to upgrade the status of the commission to an autonomous agency.

A proposed bill seeking to make the commission an autonomous agency was passed into law by members of the House of Representatives and forwarded to the Liberian Senate for concurrence.

 He said the proposed Act, titled “The Disaster Management Agency of Liberia”, when enacted into law will among others things, empower the Commission to solicit support and partner with other countries in a bid to respond to any disaster in a timely manner.

 According to him, studies have shown that climate change will continue to increase the severity and frequency of natural disasters including storms, floods and outbreak of health hazards around the World. Therefore, he said the country needs to prepare for such eventuality, noting that the passage of the draft act into law to make the commission an autonomous agency is crucial. 

“We are appealing to our elders in the Senate to please consider this document. It is about Liberia; and we are fully confident in their wisdom that sooner or later, this document will be passed into law,” he said.