Quarantine official suspended from work
SON LA (VNS)– The Son La Animal Health Station has suspended its deputy head Ha Van Tiem for issuing an illegal quarantine certificate for a car carrying more than 2,000 smuggled chickens.
The Ministry of Public Security's environmental police agency on December 29 uncovered the case of chicken smuggling in the province when they checked the car transporting chickens from Son La to Lai Chau Province.
The car's driver showed an animal quarantine certificate permitting the poultry to be transported to other provinces which had been granted by Tiem. However, the police discovered that the certificate presented to them actually referred to a different cargo of chickens.
The case prompted Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan to order chairman of the provincial People's Committee Cam Ngoc Minh to report the investigation results and propose punishments for relevant stations and individuals involved.
Minh's report showed that Tiem's permit for the transporting of the chickens went against the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)'s quarantine regulations.
The MARD's Department of Animal Health sent an inspection team to the province and detected faults caused by the irresponsibility of local animal health workers.
The Son La Police have carried out further investigations on the case, and chairman Cam Ngoc Minh said the people's committee will issue strict punishments for each violator based on the police's conclusion.
According to the Publicy Security Ministry environmental police, the seized chickens were suspected to be discarded ones illegally smuggled from another country, but provincial police later confirmed that there was no proof of their origin.
The case is undergoing further investigation, while in the meantime, Viet Nam has stepped up control of discarded smuggled chickens in a bid to protect public health and the production of local farmers. -- VNS