TIRANA, Oct. 9 – Prime Minister Edi Rama has introduced the new head of the National Food Authority, Agim Ismaili, and told the public that corruptive practices within the institution that had threatened public health would end once and for all.
The prime minister criticised the food safety watchdog, after a report from the state’s auditors showed the agency had been negligent its duties in the past five years investigated in the report.
The Supreme National Audit’s report found a number of legal discrepancies and irregularities which have threatened food safety and, in turn, compromised the economic and social stability of the country, by lowering consumers’ trust.
Problems relate to regulatory gaps that also make the work of the agency harder, according to experts. The auditors’ report shows the NFA had failed to perform proper risk analyses and of not having an official database of the companies that import food products. The auditors were also worried about the frequent change of NFA directors and political involvement of employees of the NFA, which has resulted in inexperienced food inspectors.
Local media have profiled a series of top officials over the years, showing unqualified people were placed in top positions at the NFA simply due to their political affiliation, first with the Democratic Party, then the Socialist Movement for Integration Party, later with Party for Justice Integration and Unity and most recently with the ruling Socialist Party.
It was a fact that did not escape the prime minister’s attention.
“This institution should not be neglected, as it is directly related to life safety and to the conditions Albania must fulfill to join the European family,” Rama said. “There is still laboratory equipment left in boxes because no one knows how to use it. And no one knows how to use it because people have been hired to the NFA to receive a wage, not work.”
Rama referred to the NFA’s inclination to give fines, complicate entrepreneurs life, terrorize shops and small-scale-businessmen and fail to live up to its standards.
According to Rama, this method of working is also applied by the NFA when it comes to border control and import of foods.
“People working in this institution must also understand they should walk away. The NFA is another centre infected by corruption, where it has become standard to fine for corruptive reasons,” Rama said.
The prime minister said there will be major reform at the agency, joining it with the Veterinary Service, and giving it local powers as part of the Administrational Reform.
The NFA was not initially established out of worry for the consumer’s safety, but as a requirement coming from Brussels before signing the stabilization and association agreement. The EU and Brussels further assisted the work of the NFA by cooperating in two projects and training specialists at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
The concluding remarks of the auditors’ report offered 22 recommendations for the NFA, starting from the completion of the legal gaps to the structural functioning of the agency, to help change the food safety situation in the country. Meanwhile, the NFA has been prohibited to fine individuals and business owners that trade without major infractions, especially the first 100 days of governing during which the NFA will be under a “scrutinizing” eye and the proper work and ethical standards will be enforced, Rama said.
