The call by Uganda National Bureau of Standards executive director Ben Manyindo that all foods currently being supplied to vulnerable Ugandans across the country be vetted, tested and passed as fit for human consumption is spot on.
See UNBS wants certification of OPM food suppliers (Daily Monitor, May 5, 2020). Enforcing this proposal by UNBS endorses the goodwill and overwhelming response from Ugandans and other well-wishers to the Covid-19 distress call.
But the call by UNBS comes late when tonnes of foodstuff donated and bought by government have been thrown away or stashed away, and declared as unfit for human consumption.
This messy procurement of poor quality foodstuff from unqualified and uncertified entities should not have happened when government has the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) to oversee procurement and UNBS to assure standards.
Sadly, both government oversight agencies for procurement and standards assurance were overleaped. No doubt, the lockdown resulting from our hasty attempts to stop the deadly spread of Covid-19 caught many unawares.
It is also clear, as Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Minister Amelia Kyambadde argued, that quality check by UNBS takes time. But what is uncontested is that government has well-laid out procurement procedures.
Even when the situation forced the waiver of procurement guidelines, all that government needed was to run to UNBS to provide readily available database of approved suppliers of the required beans, maize flour, and place orders and distribute the relief items to vulnerable Ugandans.
While we have a crisis that demanded quick action, we also owe it to the consumers that what is offered to them is fit for consumption.
Sadly, tonnes of the foodstuff donated by individuals, entities and bought by taxpayers’ money, have piled up at Nakawa for failure to meet the standards for human consumption, health and safety as set by UNBS.
With hindsight, both heads of PPDFA as supervisor of procurement and of UNBS as enforcer of standards, should have been drafted into National Response Fund to Covid-19. With the duo in, perhaps the procurement wouldn’t have been botched and quality of the relief food guaranteed.
Government should stop short-circuiting its mandated oversight agencies and fix this muddle. It should also ensure all prequalified companies supplying it food, are certified and their supplies tested and cleared for human consumption to avoid recurrence of this mess witnessed.
