Shah: Not so, Mr Duke

PSA president Watson Duke
PSA president Watson Duke

PRESIDENT of the Public Services Association (PSA) Watson Duke has made damning allegations against Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh and the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (Cariri), claiming both are making the country a sick place.

During a news briefing on Monday at PSA head office in Port of Spain, Duke said because of his inaction, Deyalsingh is responsible for the illness and death of citizens because pharmaceuticals and food were not being tested by the Chemical, Food and Drug Department (CFDD), thereby encouraging counterfeit products to be dispersed.

He said while Government provided $6 million to renovate the CFDD, only two of the seven labs had been completed. Duke said Cariri is not equipped or staffed to carry out tests to keep pharmaceuticals and foodstuff safe for citizens. “Cariri is a make-believe toy lab,” Duke charged.

However, Cariri’s executive director Liaquat Ali Shah said the institute has state-of-the-art facilities and is the only operation of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean. He said when there are chemical and microbiological tests to be carried out on food, Cariri tests almost every food product produced in this country.

“I have been doing it for years and continue to do it. With pharmaceuticals, you identify an active agent. You acquire the standard in the ingredient and test it. Our instruments and our people are capable of doing that. Standards do not stay indefinite in storage, so you have to proceed. To make statements that Cariri does not do tests is to be making statements in the dark.

“Cariri was set up by the Government for over 47 years doing this work. Government continues to support us with these facilities. Cariri is an advisory organisation. An individual or an organisation can send a sample for us to test because our tests are internationally accredited,” Shah said.

Responding to Duke’s claim that manufacturers were being made to pay thousands to have tests done at Cariri as compared to having them done at the CFDD, Shah said it was local manufacturers who were using the facility.

“You have status, facilities, highly qualified people and we are internationally accredited. So you are getting quality results that stand up all around. Let the people in the manufacturing sector decide what they want. Many of the large companies have labs and they still send samples to double-check what they are doing.

“Cariri tests a whole spectrum of things, including petroleum and metallurgy. You have never heard any question on the integrity of Cariri’s tests or any corruption. We have earned the respect of the private sector for confidence and confidentiality. The CFDD draws food samples on imported goods and send it to Cariri for tests. I do not claim to know the source of Mr Duke’s information,” Shah said.

Planning and Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis, under whose portfolio Cariri falls, said the agency had a history of being a very capable body of carrying out various types of tests. “Cariri has based its information on the testing that they are capable of doing, so I don’t know where Mr Duke has got that information.

Comments

"Shah: Not so, Mr Duke"

More in this section