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Simon: Food Act Gives Inspectors Room for Corruption
Wednesday 10 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 10 (TASR) - Inspectors who check food items in stores are susceptible to corruption as the newly-amended Food Act sets only an upper limit for penalties and neglects to state a bottom level, Most-Hid party vice-chairman and independent MP Zsolt Simon told TASR on Wednesday.
In line with the amendment, which Parliament approved earlier in the day, the maximum penalty will climb to €2 million.
"There's a really large amount of arbitrariness in it," said Simon, adding that an inspector may impose a fine of €1 on one shop, while another may be fined €500,000.
Simon also stressed that since 2007 it's been possible to levy penalties amounting to several hundreds of thousands of euros. Despite this, the highest fine that's been imposed to date amounted to €49,790, with no other exceeding €16,597. "As much as 98 percent of the penalties were symbolic, 10, 20 or 30 euros, which is ridiculous," he added.
According to coalition SNS party MP and head of the parliamentary committee for agriculture, the environment and nature protection Jozef Duracka, the educational aspect vis-a-vis shop managers and shoppers is more important than penalties. "Imposing penalties comes last. I believe that the Slovak consumer market is advanced enough and consumers won't buy some rubbish that shop managers tend to offer every now and then," he told TASR.
According to the legislation, the State Food Inspectorate will have the right to impose penalties of up to €2 million for repeated violations of the Food Act. Misdemeanours committed by individuals will attract fines of €1,000, or double this amount in the case of repeat offences. The bill is projected to enter into force on May 1.
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