Justice Dawn Gregory yesterday granted the Food and Drug Department an additional 14 days to submit its written arguments defending its decision to deny entry into the country of a container of condensed milk from Malaysia.
The Department’s attorney who is attached to the Attorney General’s Chambers had originally applied for 21 days.
On June 6, the judge had issued an interim order quashing the decision. The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is also named in the case but was unrepresented at yesterday’s hearing in Chambers.
City businessman, Rafik Ahmad, the owner of Superfoods Inc. filed a court action seeking the release of the container of sweetened condensed milk which arrived in Guyana last December. His court action came after months of discussions and is a last ditch attempt to gain possession of the milk which will expire in October, 2016.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, attorney at law Anil Nandlall who represents Ahmad expressed shock that the affidavit in answer by the Food and Drug Department was not ready.
“I am surprised that after over a week an application is made for another three weeks to file a simple affidavit. This affidavit could easily have been prepared and filed before today”, he said.
He pointed out that when the application for 21 days was made he objected on the ground that an affidavit can be filed long before that time and that the goods are not only perishable but they have an expiry date by October 2016 and therefore if they are not consumed by that time then they will have to be dumped causing the applicant to suffer millions of dollars in losses.
Nandlall related that the judge eventually granted the Department’s lawyer 14 days to file and serve the affidavit in answer. The matter was adjourned to June 30 at 1:30 pm.
The former Attorney General in wake of the request for additional time expressed the view that there is an agenda being executed by the Food and Drug Department targeting his client.
“I will shortly issue a statement outlining a series of actions taken against goods imported by my client countrywide”, he said.
He stated that the difficulties his client is facing does not look well for the business community as these regulatory bodies that are supposed to facilitate processes and provide services are instead “frustrating the process”.
Nandlall stressed that the container has been on the wharf since December 2015 and was only inspected by the Food and Drug Department in May this year. Stabroek News has since learnt that customs documents only reached the Department in February and on arrival there were a number of discrepancies. This newspaper was told too that the document also had a forged signature.
The document listed the item as powdered milk which is exempted from duty. This newspaper was told that in late March when the container was examined and a sample retrieved it was discovered that it was in fact condensed milk.
Fresh documents were later sent to the Department this time recording the item as sweetened condensed milk for which almost $1.5M was paid in tax. Further examination of the product by the department concluded that it was not fit to be consumed.
“They took five months before they came to inspect the container. That is why I am saying that there is an agenda to harass my client both at the point of entry into the country as well as within the country at locations where his goods are sold” Nandlall said.
He said that significantly this is not the only case pending before the court where the Food and Drug department is being challenged for refusing food products entry into Guyana. “The position adopted by the Food and Drug Department is a recent one and the items that are being prohibited from entering the country are items that have been allowed into the country without any objections from the Food and Drug Department for years, so I am not sure what has changed recently. Certainly there has not been a change of the law”, he stated.
Nandlall told Stabroek News that the import and export of food attracts very strict and rigid guidelines and requirements both in the exporting and the importing territory so that goods lawfully coming from one country go through a series of examinations at the end of which they are certified by the competent authority in that country to be fit for export.
“You will note that in this case and in other similar cases that I am doing, the importers have produced the relevant certificates from competent authorities in those countries certifying these goods fit and proper for export and these documents have been accepted for decades in Guyana by the very Food and Drug Department now all of a sudden it would appear that either these documents are being rejected or the products have suddenly become disqualified from entering Guyana. It certainly raises questions about why this change at the Food and Drug Department with no sensible reason forthcoming”, he said.
In his affidavit in support of the Notice of Motion, Ahmad said that one of the products regularly imported is milk in various forms including powered milk and sweetened condensed milk. This has been occurring over the last five years without any complaints about the quality. He said that these imports have been “without any problems whether at the point of entry into Guyana, that is either by the Guyana Revenue Authority or the Government Analyst- Food and Drug Department or any other agency”.
The businessman explained that on October 26, 2015 he ordered from one of his regular suppliers, Mewah Dairies a 20-foot container of sweetened condensed milk containing 1325 cartons. The container arrived in Guyana on December 30, 2015.
He said that sometime after the milk arrived here it was stated that the labels appeared fake. On another occasion the argument was that the milk constituents fell short of the requirements for evaporated milk”.
Attempts he said were made to explain the difference between sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk but the director of the department “appeared to be incapable of understanding the difference”.
“In a view of avoiding litigation and the looming expiry date of October, 2016, I have been in discussions with the Director of the Government Analyst-Food and Drug Department regarding the real reason for the refusal and what, if any, steps can be taken to come to a resolution”, the businessman said.
He added that prior to the container’s arrival he had all the required documentation and on this basis applied to the GRA for clearance of the said container on the 23rd day of May, 2016.
He said that when he took the Tax Assessment Notice to the Department which is located at the University of Guyana he was informed that “the constituents of the milk are not in keeping with the Food and Drug Regulations for the fat content and milk content required of the sweetened condensed milk”. He said that this was the third occasion that a different explanation for the refusal has been given.
Ahmad said that the Director of the Department Marlon Cole stamped “Entry Refused’ on his customs declaration form and to date he had been unable to clear or obtain delivery of the said container.
