A delegation of the Central Municipal Council (CMC) has conducted a follow-up tour of the slaughterhouses operated by the Qatar Company for Meat and Livestock Trading (Mawashi), in response to the public complaints received by the council.

The delegation was headed by CMC chairman Saud al-Khinzab and included CMC vice-chairman Jassim al-Malki and CMC members from a number of different constituencies.

Al-Kinzab stressed that the CMC had issued a number of recommendations to resolve the difficulties faced by Mawashi.

“We are following up the implementation of such recommendations until we reach quality service for consumers,” said al-Khinzab, indicating that the council is ready to offer Mawashi all assistance needed to sort out its difficulties.

However, he criticised the lack of work order, absence of adequate control over porters and crowdedness in the market.

Al-Khinzab indicated that the porters charge higher fees than what the municipality had fixed.

While the municipality fixed the fee for carrying a carcass at QR15, some of them actually charge up to QR100.

Further, al-Khinzab noticed the presence of absconding labour force in the market because of the huge turnout of customers and the insufficient number of porters supplied by the municipality.

“The pace of work is not suitable to address this huge turnout. The CMC had conducted a number of field visits to the slaughterhouses and issued a lot of recommendations in this regard, but most of them have not been implemented properly,” said al-Khinzab.

He indicated that the issue of porters could be resolved through enforcing fixed charges and requiring that they obtain a health certificate.

Also, more control is needed to guarantee that absconding labourers do not “sneak” into the market and exploit people.

CMC vice-chairman al-Malki expressed his dissatisfaction about the conditions of the market in general, describing it as unhygienic.

He stressed that the previous CMC recommendations should be adopted, including a work order system and installing monitors to display the work order number so that customers know when their orders are ready while they wait at an enclosed air-conditioned and well-equipped tent.

Al-Malki also suggested that Mawashi include the porter’s charges to the price of the slaughtered animal so the customer would not have to deal directly with porters.

Meanwhile, Dr Dafallah Abdulghani, acting director of slaughterhouses department at Mawashi, said that the company is ready to implement all CMC requests and recommendations on condition that the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning co-operate with them in these issues.

He also explained that currently Mawashi is undertaking expansion and maintenance works in preparation for Ramadan and Eid.

Abdulghani said that the number of staff and butchers is expected to increase by 30% to provide swifter services.

However, he pointed out that porters are supplied by the municipality, not Mawashi.