KOTA BARU: The Government believes that several companies are involved in the fake halal meat certification scandal.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Ahmad Marzuk Shaary said he had received information that these companies had been involved in such activities for quite some time.
He said as such there was no issue of enforcement officers from the Department of Islamic Development's (Jakim) being involved in the scandal nor were they complacent in carrying out their responsibilities.
"I would like to stress here that the meat cartel was not due to the carelessness of Jakim's enforcement officers and supervisors as all of them had complied to the standard operating procedures (SOP).
"This kind of fraudulent act happens almost everywhere. Jakim has a good SOP in issuing halal certification to meat companies. What transpired is that other companies copied the genuine halal logo issued by Jakim to legitimate meat companies, for their own fake transactions.
"These fake companies will use the halal certification for their imported meat. The meat belonging to these fake companies are the ones which had caused doubt of their halal status," he said.
Marzuk who is also Pengkalan Chepa MP told this to reporters after presenting school equipment to some 600 schoolchildren in his constituency today.
He also believes that the fake companies had taken advantage of the good business transaction between Jakim and genuine meat companies for their own use.
To curb this, he said Jakim had been told to tighten its enforcement and SOP in the issuance of halal certification for all imported products including meat.
"The government is also planning to increase Jakim's manpower soon and the priority locations would be at industrial areas in the Klang Valley and Johor," he said.
Marzuk advised members of the public not to panic over the issue as the Government was conducting a thorough probe into the scandal.
He added that the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry would also come out with an announcement over the matter soon.