Cash-Strapped NPHIL Donates Handwashing Barrel, Thermometer to Senate

Published: November 2, 2026

MONROVIA — The National Public Health Institute of Liberia, whose budget was cut by nearly a fifth this year, has given the Liberian Senate a handwashing barrel and a thermometer to promote infection prevention at the Capitol.

By Blamo N. Toe

Sen. Dabah Varpilah of Grand Cape Mount County, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health, received the items last weekend at NPHIL’s office in Monrovia from NPHIL Interim Director-General Sia Wata Camanor. The donation was made under NPHIL’s Safe Workspace Campaign, which encourages handwashing and temperature checks at workplaces to curb the spread of infection.

“Our honorable senators represent the Liberian people, and it is important that they are protected,” Camanor said.

She urged the Senate to install handwashing stations at its entrances, name a focal person to work with NPHIL on public health information, and accept training for staff. She cited conjunctivitis, known locally as Apollo, as one threat that calls for prevention.

Varpilah welcomed the donation. “We have been expecting an intervention of this nature, and we have been discussing the need for preventive measures because the government has established institutions responsible for addressing public health concerns,” she said. She said the Capitol has three entrances and receives visitors from all 15 counties. She questioned whether NPHIL’s emergency hotline, 4455, still works.

NPHIL’s head of communications, Joseph Weah, told The Liberian Investigator that the barrel and thermometer were symbolic. They were not meant to equip the Senate, he said, but to show institutions basic preventive steps they should then pay for themselves. The campaign was launched the previous Monday at the Liberia Revenue Authority, he said. A Senate that receives one bucket can buy more for its other entrances, and more thermometers where needed, he said.

The two institutions’ budgets are far apart. The approved fiscal 2026 national budget gives the Senate and the Office of the President Pro Tempore a combined US$18.4 million, about five and a half times NPHIL’s US$3.33 million. NPHIL’s allocation fell 19.6% from US$4.14 million in 2025.

The Senate’s line for entertainment and representation alone, US$1.36 million, is more than twice the US$603,797 NPHIL has for all of its goods and services this year. The two Senate offices also have:

• US$1.23 million for vehicle and generator fuel
• US$900,000 for vehicle insurance
• US$340,000 for constituency visits
• US$719,759 combined for legislative committee hearings

Other Senate allocations include:

• US$738,312 for the Public Accounts Committee
• US$1.57 million for the Joint Legislative Modernization Committee
• US$37,245 for water and sewage
• US$30,000 for cleaning
• US$45,000 for building repairs

Of NPHIL’s US$3.33 million, US$2.72 million goes to salaries. It has US$201,759 for laboratory consumables and US$183,407 for vaccines and vaccination supplies. Its allocation for county preventive health fell from US$245,000 in 2025 to US$2,170, and its hazard payment allocation dropped from US$380,000 to US$2,000.

The health sector as a whole receives about US$102.61 million, including US$77.77 million for the Ministry of Health. The referral hospitals get their own allocations:

• US$9.16 million for John F. Kennedy Medical Center
• US$3.74 million for Jackson F. Doe Memorial Regional Referral Hospital
• US$2.08 million for Phebe Hospital and School of Nursing

Specifically identified transfers to county hospitals are far smaller. They include:

• US$595,000 for Emirates Hospital in Gbarpolu
• US$420,000 for Redemption Hospital, down from US$425,000
• US$320,000 for C.B. Dunbar Hospital in Bong
• US$165,000 each for J.J. Dossen Hospital in Maryland and F.J. Grant Hospital in Sinoe

A separate US$1.3 million goes to the New Redemption Hospital. The hospital transfers do not include centrally financed salaries, supplies and other support.