Public administration | Tavares says food safety will be one of IACM’s priorities

José Tavares

Food safety related issues, namely the strengthening of the inspection and monitoring of “take-away” food sellers operating without licenses, will be one of the major priorities of the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM), said the new president of the bureau’s administrative committee, José Tavares, on the sidelines of his swearing-in ceremony, held yesterday afternoon at the government’s headquarters.
“We have to pay attention to evolutions in this field, namely those related to take-away food since these kinds of shops do not have the same licensing [as the restaurants] although the law regarding food safety covers all cases. We are going to have more inspections of these kinds of establishments and may in the future proceed to make adjustments in the law,” he said, adding that extra measures for the food sellers that are not registered with IACM but only with the Finance Department (DSF) are needed. The new IACM head said that many establishments are even operating through the Internet and “are growing like mushrooms.”
The president of IACM also mentioned that there is a protocol already signed between the Secretary of Administration and Justice and the Portuguese Food and Economic Safety Authority (ASAE) for “cooperation at this level that also involves exchange of experiences and information.”
Another of the priorities of the mandate regards animal rights. “We need to distribute more information in order to protect the animals but also to make it simple to understand for the owners of these animals,” Tavares said. “This job is taking time because some lawmakers asked a lot of questions about this matter. It takes time to discuss it section by section, and that is why it is not yet completed but we will work to speed up this process,” he added.
“Speed up” was also the phrase chosen by the IACM head to isolate the primary need of the bureau regarding the many legal drafts that the department has currently in progress.
Regarding the difficulty of his new position when compared with the previous functions as president of the Sports Development Board (ID), Tavares considered that his new role “is no more arduous” than the ones he has held before. “It is just more comprehensive and with a broader scope. After four or five days I was already able to understand much about the duties of the IACM,” he said.
José Tavares was born in Macau and graduated in Physical Education and Sports at the Macau Polytechnic Institute. He joined the public administration in June 1984 working at the Leal Senado (currently the IACM). In 1988, he started working at the ID, where he became president in May 2014, following the departure of the current head of the Customs Services, Alex Vong, who had left the ID presidency to head the IACM.