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Uganda Ministry censures oil refinery company
2005-09-02 08:17:05
By Emmanuel Kihaule
The Uganda Ministry of State for Health has denied approving products by Bidco Uganda Oil Refineries Ltd. and has ruled out that advertisements purporting to portray the company’s products as having been fortified by the Ministry were wrong and unethical.
The company has also some business interests in Tanzania where it is engaged in the manufacture of cooking oil and laundry soap products.
Uganda’s Minister of State for Health (General Duties), Flt. Capt. George Michael Mukula said that the ministry had never approved M/s Bidco products whatsoever.
He also said that the acts by the company alluding its products as having been fully fortified was also a direct infringement of the Ugandan legal regime.
’’Though it’s the government policy to encourage industrial investment and free competition, we can’t condone the flouting of our laws with impunity as in the present case,’ the minister said in a letter to the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) dated 19 August, this year.
Mkula said that the company’s acts might have been contributed by stiff competition in the market in its attempts to outwit its rivals but he insisted that such advertisements ought to run strictly within the confines of the Ugandan law.
Citing the country’s Food and Drugs (Food Fortification) Regulations of 2005, Mukula said that it was the minister responsible for health who had the authority to authorise, regulate and issue guidelines for the application for the official food fortification logo.
The use of the logo was only reserved to fortified products but in the present situation the same was not the case.
Bidco decided on its own to use the logo without following the stipulated procedure.
The minister thus asked for immediate action against the company so as to ensure that the latter was compelled to comply with the legal requirements in the country.
On the other hand, UNBS has said that it had realized through market surveillance that Bidco was manufacturing, marketing and selling cooking oil and laundry soap products marked with the Uganda Standards (US) certification mark without authorisation.
In a letter to Bidco, dated 26 August , this year, the UNBS Executive Director, Dr. Terry Kahuma, said that the act by the company, besides being illegal, also misled consumers and the general public.
He thus ordered the company to immediately stop manufacturing the products bearing the mark until when the required legal procedures were complied with and also not to release any products into the market unless the same were certified by UNBS.
Kahuma insisted that failure to comply with the orders would result into stern measures against the company including the institution of legal proceedings against it and enforcement of product recall from the company.
Bidco’s actions also attracted condemnation by the Consumer Education Trust of Uganda (Consent) which said that the use of the mark by the company was not only illegal and misleading but also unacceptable.
Its Chief Executive Officer, Kimera Henry Richard, said late last month that such misrepresentations and unfair competitive practices were not to be entertained as they were quite detrimental to consumers.
’’Despite the poverty levels in the country, consumers would wish to spend their hard-earned money on correct information, quality and safe products at affordable prices,’ he said.
A senior official with Bidco was quoted in the media as saying that the company had not breached any law or regulation and that it had submitted the requisite applications to the responsible ministry and that the process to get approval was underway.
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