INAE imposes fines of 30 million meticais

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INAE imposes fines of 30 million meticais

8:23 CAT | 03 Jul 2018

File photo: O País

The Mozambican government’s National Inspectorate of Economic Activities (INAE) inspected 10,175 establishments in the first half of this year, according to the INAE Inspector-General, Rita Freitas.

But this was considerably less than half the target figure of 24,151 inspections.

Freitas told a Maputo press conference on Monday that INAE fined 463 establishments a total of 30.28 million meticais (about 511,000 US dollars, at current exchange rates). INAE ordered the closure of 21 establishments.

“We only penalised 4.55 per cent of the establishments visited”, said Freitas, “which shows that INAE’s activities are marked by civic education and awareness raising. But when we come across cases of counterfeiting, of falsification of goods, and when the establishment is in extremely poor conditions of hygiene and cleanliness, we are obliged to order its closure”.

It is one thing to impose fines, and quite another to collect them. Freitas admitted that so far slightly more than 5.6 million meticais of these fines have been paid, leaving almost 25 million unpaid.

“Some companies ask to pay the fines in instalments”, explained Freitas, “while others are appealing against the fines”.

Among the offences discovered by the inspection teams were hygiene problems (103 cases), poor storage of food products (100), unlabelled products (68), and employees without the compulsory health cards, or with expired cards (85).

20 establishments had no emergency exits, and in 150 cases the obligatory complaints book, where clients can write complaints and make suggestions, was nowhere to be seen. 70 Establishments were found to be selling goods past their expiry date, and valued at 166,000 meticais.

Source: AIM