Deputy House Speaker Elie Ferzli, who was one of the Lebanese MPs who got vaccinated against ensuring equitable access to the vaccines, called out the World Bank Regional Director Saroj Kumar Jha in a strongly-worded statement.
Ferzli told journalist Timour Azhari that the regional director is a “hypocrite and a liar and if he doesn’t apologize, I won’t let him stay in Lebanon,” threatening to kick him out of Lebanon.
This comes after Kumah Jha commented on the breach in the contract by Lebanese officials who decided to vaccinate themselves against the rules set in place by Lebanon and the World Bank to ensure a fair inoculation process.
“Everyone has to register and wait for their turn!” Jha said in his tweet, addressing the Health Ministry Hamad Hassan and the head of the COVID-19 vaccination committee, Dr. Bizri, and hashtagging his tweet with the “No Wasta” call.
The breach of terms and conditions by a consorting group of over a dozen Lebanese MPs on Monday could cost the country the vaccine that the World Bank is financing.
The World Bank issued a statement clearly outlining the measures that will be taken against the breach, including a halt in the vaccination funding.
The organization has allocated $34 million to help Lebanon acquire the Pfizer-BioTech vaccine to vaccinate 2 million people. It has already covered almost $18 million of that, including the vaccines currently being administered in the country.
Lebanon, which is drowning in a severe financial crisis, cannot possibly inoculate its population against the coronavirus and stop the raging pandemic without the World Bank funds and other similar external supports.
And yet, these officials acted in the denial of such when they rushed to consort to take the vaccine together on the sly in the parliament.
To add to the scandalous breach making the international headlines, the Deputy of the House Speaker Elie Ferzli is attacking the regional head of the World Bank with libels and threats to expel him from a country that he, after all, doesn’t own.
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