Ministry admits delays in food safety regulations; cites budget constraints after two-year deadlock

The Ministry of Health has stated that only two regulations have been gazetted so far under the Food Safety Act, which came into effect on August 23, 2024. The Ministry attributed the delay in drafting the remaining required regulations to budgetary constraints.

Member of Parliament for North Galolhu, Mohamed Ibrahim (Kudoo), has requested that officials from the Ministry of Health be summoned to Parliament for questioning regarding the failure to formulate necessary regulations under the Food Safety Act. In his submission, the MP noted that while the Act mandates all accompanying regulations to be finalized and gazetted within three to six months of the law coming into effect, these regulations remain unmade two years later. He is seeking clarification from the Ministry on the reasons behind this significant delay.

In relation to this matter, the Ministry was summoned to the Parliament's General Purpose Committee on Tuesday. Speaking at the committee meeting, Deputy Minister Ismail Zahir stated that these regulations contain highly technical information.

Following the enactment of the law in early 2024, the Ministry initially explored securing funds from the state budget to draft the necessary regulations. However, officials noted that this approach faced significant challenges. Ismail Zahir stated that while initial efforts focused on allocating state funds for the formulation of these regulations, the financing could not be secured due to various reasons.

Following that, efforts were made to secure funding through the World Health Organization (WHO); however, Zahir noted that sufficient funds could not be arranged.

He noted that while the law stipulates 20 regulations, some can be consolidated, reducing the total required to 14. Efforts were subsequently made to secure funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and once the financing was finalized, the work proceeded. However, he pointed out that the consultant tasked with drafting several of these regulations failed to meet the ADB’s deadline. As a result, the project had to be restarted this year with the previously appointed consultant.

We acknowledge that we faced certain challenges in enforcement due to the delay in gazetting these regulations. However, the previously mentioned factors resulted in setbacks in moving forward with their implementation.

Deputy Minister of Health Ismail Zahir

Zahir stated that although the formulation of all necessary regulations has been commissioned, only the administrative regulations for the National Food Safety Quality Board and the regulations concerning food advertisement have been gazetted to date.

He stated that drafting is currently underway for six regulations, while three others have already been submitted to the President's Office for gazetting. Zahir further noted that two regulations have been sent to the Attorney General's Office, with an additional one expected to be forwarded to the office shortly.