MONROVIA, October 14 (LINA)-The Minister of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT), Lewis G. Brown, has made it clear that government has no plan to terminate the services of non-essential employees as perceived by some individuals.
Minister Brown said government has a greater focus and responsibility to the people of Liberia and it is the duty of all Liberians to focus on the current effort to eradicate the Ebola virus, rather than dishonorably distracting government’s effort by negative misinformation.
“We are a government; we do not play those kinds of games, we are all under attack from this virus that continues to threaten our country; if people frequently try to distract the nation’s focus, it will not be too long until the virus engulfs us all,” Brown indicated.
The minister made the statement at the MICAT daily Ebola news conference held at the ministry on Tuesday.
Brown disclosed that government’s extension of the stay home order is intended to serve the greater interest of the nation and to decongest public places which will subsequently prevent the exponential spread of the virus.
He pointed out that government is in constant consultation with officials of the Civil Service Agency and human resource personnel in an effort to explore all available benefit possibilities to make the government manageable which uprightly does not amount to a decision to dismiss employees.
“The country is focused on fighting this virus and can never be involved in ‘witch-hunt’. We have only one enemy and we have to fight it with all our available resources,” the minister said
The MICAT boss also observed that the President has enormous power in reference to the Constitution of Liberia, but alluded that the only power so desired now is the power to fight Ebola.
It can be recalled that government during the second outbreak of the Ebola virus decided to depopulate the public work sector in an effort to prevent the further spread of the Ebola disease at which time all non-essential employees were asked to stay home with regular salary payment as government observes the trend of the Ebola fight.
LINA WSG/GDJ/TSS/PTK/JKW