Rashid Al-Fouzan Al-Riyadh The Riyadh municipality has announced that it fined or closed down hundreds of violating restaurants during an ongoing inspection campaign. These violations simply mean that a lot of bad food, poisons and polluted materials have gone into our stomachs. The municipality should not rely solely on surprise raids but should, instead, program its field visits to cover all restaurants in Riyadh and other cities to make sure residents are being served hygienic food. The most surprising aspect of this inspection campaign is that Riyadh alone has more than 36,000 eateries, which include restaurants, cafeterias and others, while the municipality only has 600 inspectors. Using a simple calculation, this means that there is one inspector for every 60 restaurants. The careful inspection of a single restaurant requires the presence of four to five inspectors. The regular inspection tours of the restaurants and cafeterias will ensure that the food we consume is hygienic. In addition to fines and closures, I would like to add the punishment of publicizing erring restaurants. When a violating restaurant is named, the others will be deterred and will fully apply the rules and regulations concerning hygiene. We have ignored control over the eateries for too long and it is high time now that we keep a close watch on them. This will necessitate supplying the municipalities with sufficient staff to supervise the eateries regularly for 365 days a year. Though the money collected from the fines usually goes to the Finance Ministry, the municipalities should seek mechanisms to increase their income and encourage their staff to do their job properly. It is not a secret that the municipalities have enough tools to do their duties. Therefore, we will not accept the temporary enthusiastic work but call for steady inspection tours all year around.
