Rotten meat scandal: Probe report blames Ministry, BLC

Manama  : Passing the buck to the Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning and the Bahrain Livestock Company (BLC) on “rotten meat scandal,” Parliamentary Inquiry Committee unveiled its report yesterday.

“Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning and the BLC were responsible for the scandal that shook Bahrain in January 2015,” informed Chairman of Parliamentary Inquiry Committee Jamal Buhassan revealing the contents of the panel’s findings in a news conference at the Parliament House.

He said that the findings of the committee were the result of their intense inquiry and they held more than twenty-eight sessions.

The 10-member Inquiry Committee consisted of MPs Jamal Buhassan, Khalifa Al Ghanem (Deputy Chairman), Jamal Dawood, Abdulrahman Buali, Majed Al Majed, Roua Al Hayki, Osama Alkhaja, Nasser Al Qasseer, Ali Al Moqla and Mohammed Milad.   

Buhassan said that they would present the report before the parliament in two weeks and after the debate in the parliament, it will be sent to the government. The report has already been submitted before the Parliamentary Authority Office.

Accusing the Ministry of evading its responsibilities, he said it was playing with the lives of the people. “It was their responsibility to ensure that the right procedures were adopted for the import of the frozen meat to Bahrain but they neglected their duty.”

Buhassan said that they did not follow the necessary procedures for the import of the frozen meat and as a result the inedible meat entered the Kingdom. “It spoiled the image of the government.”

He commented that the result of their investigations should also serve as a warning to other institutions that were not doing their work properly.

“The breaking of rotten meat scandal weakened people’s confidence on our food safety systems. We want to ensure that such incidents may never happen in future,” he stressed.

He remarked that the BLC was also not careful in following all the necessary procedures.

“The meat scandal was a black spot on the fair name of Bahrain. It sullied the confidence of the people on the Bahraini import systems,” Buhassan added.     

Rotten meat scandal came to light in the middle of January 2015 after the health officials seized a consignment of frozen meat unfit for human consumption. 

The Parliamentary Committee was set up to investigate and identify the drawbacks in the meat imports system.