BEIRUT: Health Minister Wael Abu Faour announced Wednesday that he would continue to crack down on what he deemed to be a "mafia" of food violators who benefit from lax monitoring of food-safety standards.
“Corruption in the food dossier is much greater than we imagined,” Abu Faour said during a news conference, vowing that the “battle against food mafias is at the top of our priorities.”
Abu Faour said that the campaign did not just target food safety exclusively, its goal was also to abolish “corruption” in the sector.
The health minister expressed fears that “greater corruption” was set to be revealed, given the lack of surveillance and monitoring of food safety.
The corruption, according to the minister, springs from the “greed and ignorance” of stake-holders who constitute a “mafia” of corruption.
This mafia, he argued, benefits from the lack of monitoring, possibly because they could market and profit from food that should not be viable for sale.
Abu pledged that the Health Ministry would carry on with its sweeping campaign against violators as he thanked the ministry’s employees for their hard work throughout the campaign.
The efforts of the ministry’s employees have restored the “value” of their work and the “prestige” of the public servant title, he said.
With regards to financial compensation and extra hours, the health minister said that the privileges would only be given to active and productive employees. Abu Faour also noted that he would dismiss any inactive member of the ministry at the start of the new year.
Commenting on an airport inspection that took place a day earlier, Abu Faour said that the ministry’s raid helped “close large sections of corruption in Lebanon.”
On Tuesday, Abu Faour ordered the closure of food and medicine storage warehouses at Beirut's airport, citing poor hygiene and expired items found during an inspection.
Abu Faour referred to the warehouse as an “execution chamber for the Lebanese citizen’s health.”
The health minister also vowed to pursue the matter with the judiciary through the prosecution of negligent officials.
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