State structures are going to regain the function of veterinary-sanitary examination. "Atameken" is against it!

According to the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken" idea of regaining the function contradicts to the ideology of our country and to the course set by the President. This position was announced at a conference held on August 12 at the initiative of the Secretariat of the Trade Committee NCE "Atameken". It was attended by representatives of the Committee of veterinary control and supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan, the Committee for Consumer Protection of the Ministry of National Economy RK, RSE "Republican Veterinary Laboratory" and other interested parties.

According to officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, of the transfer of the functions of veterinary and sanitary surveillance of the Kazakhstani market to the state came on Wednesday from Akimats of  North Kazakhstan, Almaty region and Almaty city. The presented argument is quite solid, it state about inability of private laboratories to monitor "properly" this area, which is very important from the point of public safety.

However, this statement was not supported by factual materials. State authorities were unable to cite a single case of violation of the requirements in terms of technical equipment, availability of qualified personnel and expertise to ensure the safety of products by private laboratories.

The believe that state laboratories work better only because they are "public" is deceitful. The activities of each private laboratory are controlled by the inhouse state veterinary inspector, carrying out functions of control over their work.

The question "What for?" waited for his answer in the auditorium. The true motives of the Ministry of Agriculture  became clear when representatives of RSE "Republican Veterinary Laboratory" said that out of 128 of their laboratories - 50 are unprofitable. Officials have suggested the most effective solution, in their view, to save their branches from bankruptcy and closure - to survive in this sphere of "private owners" and return veterinary and sanitary control function to the state on Wednesday!

The only more or less convincing argument in favor of this position was related to insufficient number of employees in state veterinary laboratories. For example, in Akmola region one employee is assigned to the three districts. And this, according to officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and its agencies, calls "the problem of delays in the implementation of veterinary and sanitary expertise and services to the population".

Of course, the heads of major trading markets and veterinary sanitary inspection laboratories do not agree with the attempts to kill their business in order to preserve the army of  state officers. It was noted that since 2002 the country has developed and operates a system, ensuring food safety in the food markets and it is impractical to disrupt it. Entrepreneurs invested their own funds to equip veterinary-sanitary laboratories with necessary equipment, they have trained personnel. It was noted that the cost of equipping a laboratory, on average, is about 11.5 mln. tenge and more.

In Kazakhstan there are 174 private laboratories engaged in the examination of food products of animal origin at food markets. In the case of the transfer of these functions to the state, the Ministry of Agriculture laboratories will need more than 2 billion tenge to be allocated from the state budget to equip its structural subdivisions. Only in this way they will be able to carry out quality assessment in the amount, which is now being implemented in the competitive environment. It is worrisome that the transfer of functions does not take into account losses incurred by the business - government officials do not offer private laboratories the mechanisms for their reimbursement.

There is one more thing - a political one. The mechanism of the return of the functions to the state, which have been  transferred to the competitive environment long time ago, contradicts to the course declared by the Head of the State.

It is no coincidence thta the President's Message to the people "Strategy" of Kazakhstan-2050": a new policy of the state puts  a special emphasis on improving the quality of public services and the need to release government agencies from performing non-core functions to the private sector. Private business always and everywhere is more effective state, said the leader of the nation from the rostrum.

In addition, there are the actual regulations of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On the development of the market of certain types of works and services", which no one has yet canceled.

Government representatives generally agreed with the logic of the arguments of entrepreneurs. At the same time, they offered to stricken control over turnover of food products regardless of the form of ownership of laboratories - private or public.

The discussion also touched upon issues of development of skills, equipment of systems that comply with state standards, tariff prices on research services.

Chamber of Entrepreneurs "Atameken" offered in two months to study and to prepare a comprehensive analytical report on the activities of private veterinary-sanitary laboratories.