A Parliamentary Sub-Committee, directed by the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo, to investigate complaints over distribution and sale of contaminated Malta Guinness, has finished its work.
Information gathered by CITY&BUSINESS GUIDE indicates that after nearly two months of painstaking investigations, the final report will be debated on the floor of the House one of these days.
When the paper contacted the chairman of the committee, Hon. Alhaji Amadu Sorogo, he said the final report was ready and hinted that it would be submitted to the Speaker of Parliament within the shortest possible time.
It would be recalled that one Wisdom Mensah Dali, had on February 26, 2009, petitioned the Minister for Health and the Speaker of Parliament over what he suspected to be unwholesome Malta Guinness on the Ghanaian market.
According to him, he bought 10 crates of Malta Guinness from Power Packed Distribution Center, a registered distributor for Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited located at Mallam in Accra on January 31, 2009 for a funeral, but discovered to his utter shock that many of those who consumed the product complained of stomach ache.
He said the situation became so serious that some of the consumers had to be hospitalized, to the extent that word went round that they were poisoned by the host.
“The good intention of refreshing friends and sympathizers who spent their time, energy and resources to mourn with the bereaved family has rather brought enormous embarrassment, humiliation, psychological trauma, suspicion and disrepute to the bereaved family as a result of the contaminated liquid deposit into Malta Guinness bottles,†he stated.ÂÂ
He said as a result of the development, he took two samples of unopened bottles of the drink to the Ghana Food and Drugs Board on February 3, 2009, where two officers at post, Mr. Seidu and Mr. Kofi, noted that neither of the bottles had batch numbers or dates of manufacture and expiry.
The petitioner expressed worry that several weeks after he had complained to the FDB, thousands of cartons of the product had remained in circulation across the country, and therefore called on Parliament to task the FBD to do the right thing, since what Guinness Breweries was doing in Ghana was against FDB regulations (General Requirements 7 and 8).
CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE can say that the committee had visited the Guinness Factory in Kumasi a couple of times, and the recommendations were not too pleasant.
The funeral, which was marred by the supposed contaminated Malta Guiness, took place on January 31, 2009 at the Wembley Park, Mallam in Accra. Meanwhile, Mr. Dali has threatened to go to court over the matter if the need arises.
By Bennett Akuaku
