The government will show zero tolerance to negligence in duties of field level officials at the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) in monitoring food items and manufactured products, Industries Minister Dilip Barua said in Dhaka on Tuesday.
“We want to show zero tolerance to negligence in duties of BSTI officials. Legal measures would be taken against them if found guilty of carelessness in maintaining quality of foods,” he told a discussion, reports BSS.
BSTI arranged the function marking the 44th World Standards Day at its conference room. The day was observed across the country as elsewhere in the world on October 14 with the theme “International Standards Ensure Positive Change.”
BSTI Director General Ikramul Haque presided over the function while Industries Secretary Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah spoke as the special guest.
Barua said the government would not compromise with quality of foods and manufactured items whatever powerful the owners of food companies are. “We’ll not dare to take stringent action against either BSTI officials or adulterators if the exportable are not as per specification.”
He asked BSTI authorities to keep vigilance so that its inspectors and field level officials don’t compromise with unscrupulous food makers.
Moinuddin Abdullah said BSTI is advancing towards its goal despite various shortcomings and as a result awareness against food adulteration has been created among the stakeholders in the country. Nonetheless, the state-run organisation will have to be time-befitting, he said.
The Industries Secretary urged the BSTI officials to issue certificates for products after examining properly.
“Please don’t give chance to any company illegally by wasting time while maintaining quality of foods and don’t harass companies in the name of testing quality of their products … inform companies on time about test results of their products whether good or bad,” the Industries Secretary pointed out.
Ikramul Haque said BSTI has so far certified 3,500 food items and manufactured products since its inception in 1985. Ii has been working for removing the technical barriers to trade (TBT).
Abu Abdullah said the Bangladesh Accreditation Board plans to work for maintaining quality of energy and environmental issues to meet the growing demand for ensuring standards of items.
Referring to the BSTI’s manpower shortage, Dr Syed Humayun Kabir said the institution will have 2000 manpower and 11 magistrates soon so that it can deal with the issue of foods quality efficiently.
