NCE "Atameken" again raises the question of absurd sanitary and epidemiological  requirements

Speaking at a meeting of the Council on the protection of the entrepreneurs' rights and anti-corruption of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Atameken", Director of the Department of Public Monitoring and work with administrative barriers of NCE Erbol Ustemirov noted that public authorities and NCE carried out serious work to improve conditions for business: reduced number of permits and licenses, optimized inspection procedures. However, the analysis of incoming business calls indicates that not all problems are solved. Of particular concern are requirements of public authorities to entrepreneurs.

"There was repeatedly voiced figure on the total number of such claims - more than 28 thousand. It is clear that the entrepreneur can’t perform all of them, plus he can never remember and know all of these requirements. Of course, such a huge number of requirements creates favorable conditions for corruption. For example, there are requirements of sanitary norms. Currently, one checklist contains 83 generic requirements", - he said.

To resolve this situation NCE together with the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of National Economy and with experts developed a common approach to the optimization of the requirements of the checklists in the exercise of state control (supervision).

In accordance with new approaches the checklists should be include: 1) the requirements that characterize the safety of the final production of the product (goods, works, services). They are checked by laboratory analysis, measurements; 2) requirements, which in fact can be verified. This is verification of documentation, visual inspection of the availability of necessary equipment, markings and other indicators; 3) the checklists should not include requirements that characterize the internal processes, as the control is provided by the inspected subject through organization of the production process control.

"I would like to mention the constructive position of the Committee on Consumer Protection, whose representatives actively participated in the audit of checklists. As a result, we have analyzed 41 health rules, which revealed 11543 requirements. From audited requirements of the checklists, it was decided to exclude 9172 (about 80%), respectively, we have stored only 2371 (20%). As a result referential rules were excluded from checklists, the checklists became clear, concise and enforceable to the audited entities”, - stated the expert.

He cited the example of the objects of wholesale and retail of food products, where out of 207 sanitary requirements, it was recommended to exclude 158 or 76%. Such requirements were excluded: 1) the existence of separate refrigerators for storage and sale of fresh fish and fish products (of course, that modern refrigeration units have separate sections to allow the products to be stored separately); 2) conduct daily wet cleaning with disinfectant, daily washing of containers and packaging inventory (these requirements characterize the production process itself of the enterprise, which takes place on a daily basis and it must be constantly monitored, which can be done only by internal control of the enterprise); 3) sale of products of animal origin without veterinary documents, since at present veterinary documents are not issued for the finished products.

According to Ustemirov, currently the draft of the order of the Minister of national economy on the approval of new checklists (in total 45) was submitted to NCE for study, and in the near future NCE will express its position.

"I want to clarify that we actually cleaned sanitary checklists. The general requirements of sanitary rules are retained, providing sanitary welfare of the population", - said the representative of NCE.

Ustemirov also spoke about the absurd and outdated sanitary requirements. Thus, according to him, Kazakhstan catering facilities are not allowed to cook pasta with mince and thickness of an omelet should not be more than 3 cm "The question arises: how modern and substantiated are such claims?", - He said.

"The discontent of entrepreneurs is also caused by over-concretized requirements to the different objects, for example, on the location of the shelves at such a specific distance from the floor and wall. Thus, according to "Sanitary rules to catering objects" storage of bulk products must be carried out on the shelves at a distance of 50 cm from the wall, with a gap between stacks of 75 cm. For objects of preschool education the distance of the first row of tables to the wall next to the window - 1 meter, the height of the lower edge of a blackboard - 70 cm", - said the expert.

Thus the representative of "Atameken" noted that the current requirements for the pre-school institutions are reviewed, with a large number of the recommendations issued by the Ministry of Education and Science - the authorized body in the field of education. MES recommended to exclude and to review more than 120 requirements. The final decision on these recommendations has not yet been made.

"Entrepreneurs of 5 districts of the North-Kazakhstan region (Magzhan Zhumabaev, Gabit Musrepov, Aiyrtau, Mamlyutsk and Taiynsha District) submitted complaints regarding impossible demands of sanitary rules. Entrepreneurs rightly point to the impossible demands on the organization of the centralized washing. For example, in the village of Poludino of Magzhan Zhumabaev - the district population is 1,400 people. How, in such a village can be centralized laundry? What entrepreneur expresses a wish to run an unprofitable business – to open and to keep the laundry? "- said Ustemirov.

A major concern of entrepreneurs, according to NCE, are requirements of sanitary rules to objects of wholesale and retail trade in terms of prohibition of repackaging and decanting of food at retail. «This provision creates a barrier during sale of products, such as cereals, cheese, sugar, pasta that is purchased from wholesalers bags 50 kg or more, and cheeses rolls - 8-9 per kg per roll. For the convenience of shoppers and the successful sale small shops bags repack them in 1 kg bags or slice cheeses, sausage from 100 to 500 grams in plastic wrap. Packaging takes place in areas corresponding to the sanitary rules on measuring instruments that have passed verification. However, SES authorities consider it as a violation. We believe that these requirements should be revised", - he said.

Summing up his report Erbol Ustemirov noted that the facts, when businesses are suffering because of the absurd and outdated requirements are abundant. "However, as our analysis and appeals of entrepreneurs show, there are requirements that also need to be revised or deleted. The Committee argues with our recommendations. They talk about the need to study the issue of scientific exclusion or revision to any requirement. The issue of scientific research was discussed with the Ministry of National Economy, and we have found understanding. We even studied the market of research organizations, which, in our opinion, could undertake such studies", - he said.

"For a radical solution we ask the Council to recommend to the Government to allocate appropriate budgets for scientific revision of existing sanitary rules with the revision or abolition of unnecessary, outdated and duplicative requirements", - concluded E. Ustemirov.