By Marilyn Collins
Marilyn Collins is a former Director of the Government Analyst Food and Drugs Department. She is currently a lecturer at the University of Guyana
One of the primary threats to effective food safety control in Guyana is the fragmented administration of responsibilities. Various duties reside within different ministries and departments and there are no formal coordinating linkages. Accordingly, such collaboration as occurs is based on personal relationships, which are often unsustainable given the movement of persons either within the public service or out of the system altogether.
This absence of cohesion has often resulted in inefficient use of scarce human and material resources, counterproductive ‘turfism’ and petty jealousies that inevitably spawn a lack of consumer confidence in the food safety system. Invariably consumers are confused since it
