As increasing numbers of cases of importation of counterfeit and/or expired goods, particularly milk, drugs, items of food and medical devices continue to show up on the local radar, a reliable Public Health Ministry source has told Stabroek Business that it is rife with corruption, adding that the authorities no longer appear to have “reliable control” over the integrity of several consignments of consumer goods imported into the country.
“The Government Analyst Food and Drugs Department (GAFDD) may be the oversight body but it has little real, if any, control over the situation,” the ministry source said.
Earlier this week GAFDD Director Marlan Cole restated the view he had previously articulated that “qualitative and quantitative limitations in the department” continued to “seriously limit its capacity to properly police the movement of those categories of goods that fall within its jurisdiction.”
