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Dispute over fund for cancer hospital equipment continues
The two parties at the centre of a bitter dispute over a fund set up to buy equipment for the Maharagama Apeksha Cancer Hospital, continue to point fingers at each other.
M.S.M. Mohamed addressing a news conference on Friday
Apeksha Hospital Director Dr Wasantha Dissanayake claimed the fund that was set up to buy and donate a Tomotherapy machine and a Linear Accelerator (LINAC) to the hospital at a cost of Rs. 1 billion, was not under the supervision of either him or the hospital. He said he could not take responsibility for the funds.
“There have been people who have donated hundreds of thousands of rupees. They keep asking me what happened to the money but I have no idea about it as the hospital is not supervising the fund. I cannot be held responsible.”
Dr Dissanayake said the fund, that had been set up by M.S.M. Mohamed’s Fight Cancer Team (FCT), did not have the hospital’s approval and was “abusing the hospital name.”
He said it was “useless” to purchase the machines without building a specific room for the machines first. “Such a room has clear specifics as there is a danger of radiation exposure,” he said.
He added that the hospital had not been consulted about the setting up of this fund either.
The FCT however, hit back at a news briefing held on Friday. Mr Mohamed, who lost his only son to cancer and had earlier collected money and bought a PET scanner for the same hospital, refuted all allegations.
He noted that his team publicly signed a Memorendum of Understanding (MoU) with the Health Ministry to buy the machines for the Apeksha Hospital. “The funds are being collected by the National Health Development Fund. The account is with the Bank of Ceylon and it is directly under the Health Ministry. Neither I nor any member of the FCT, the Apeksha Hospital or even the Health Minister has any control over it. It comes under specific Health Ministry officials,” he explained.
He also said records of money deposited to the account since it was set up in 2016 are available for checking.
“We never asked any donor to debit money to any other account.”
He said he suspected racism behind the hospital director’s allegations. Mr Mohamed appealed to the people to not be deceived by baseless accusations leveled against the project.