One of
the major items on Australia's export bill happens to be livestock
exports. Australian livestock breeders ship every year hundreds of
thousands of sheep, goats and cattle to many countries around the
world for meat or in other words for slaughtering. The total
Australian livestock exports are worth US$ 1 Billion and employees
thousands of people in Australia. Because of the volumes, much of the
live stock handling has been mechanised. Livestock are brought up to
ships in narrow width barges and are then transported on big ships
almost on a conveyor belt for sailing to other countries.
An
Australian exporting company called 'Wellard' had sent one such ship
carrying about 21000 Australian sheep to Bahrain, a small but
affluent island country in middle east. The port authorities of
Bahrain rejected this consignment of sheep from Australia claimed
that the animals suffered from the scabby mouth disease and refused
to unload the livestock on land. 'Wellard' then offered this
consignment to Pakistan. It is not known, what were the terms and
conditions of the offer and whether Pakistanis were told about the
rejection of the consignment by Bahrain. No one knew what transpired
between 'Wellard', Pakistan agricultural department and Australian
agricultural department, who had issued the export license in the
first place, but Pakistan issued an import license to 'Wellard' at
the request of PK Meat and Food, a company in Pakistan, who had
agreed to purchase the consignment from the Australian exporter. and
the ship was diverted to port of Karachi in Pakistan.
After
the sheep reached the Karachi port, the livestock cargo was unloaded
on land. Before sending the sheep to abattoirs, Pakistan authorities
decided to check the livestock health. The sheep tested positive for
salmonella and Actinomyces bacteria and were considered as unsafe for
human consumption. Alarmed by the prospects of a huge loss on the
consignment, exporters sent the samples from the sheep to a British
laboratory and came back with clean reports claiming that the meat
for human consumption. Municipal officials in Karachi however
rejected the tests by the British laboratory. Pakistan livestock
officials then ordered that the entire lot of 21000 sheep be culled
over disease concerns.
Australian
news media started suspecting some foul play in this sordid saga.
Australian Government also launched multiple probes in the affair.
However none of the findings have yet seen the light of day. However,
an Australian news organisation (ABC 7:30) has now come up with
documentary evidence that suggests that a senior official of the
Australian exporter, falsified export documents to gain permission to
ship the consignment to Pakistan. According to this report, all
export consignments from Australia need to have a Certificate of
Australian Origin – which is issued in Perth by the Fremantle
Chamber of Commerce – bearing a series of stamps and signatures to
prove its authenticity. It has been now found out that the
certificate of origin issued in the case has been a fake and forged
one. The stamp found on the Certificate of Australian Origin in this
case doesn’t have a date below it. Furthermore, it shows a ‘written
number’ instead of the regular stamp. An official of the Fremantle
chamber of commerce also confirmed to the Australian correspondent
that the certificate in question was ‘never authorised’ by them.
Before
the consignment could land in Karachi, importers needed to have
another document; a no-objections certificate issued by the
Pakistani government. A certificate was issued by pakistan
authorities with an important condition, which stipulated that the
consignment of sheep must meet all health requirements for the
shipment as per Pakistani law. Meeting this condition was impossible
because the sheep were all suffering with disease.
A
clever magic trick was done by someone and a phrase ‘if for
breeding’ was added in the no objection certificate, which now
meant that health requirement was a priority condition only if the
sheep were for breeding. Since the sheep weren’t for breeding,
they were for slaughter in this case, there was no need to prove that
consignment met all of Pakistan's health requirements and it was
allowed to land.
According
to the report, Wellard CEO Mauro Balzarini, blames the falsification
of documents on one Garry Robinson, who served as the company’s
Middle East manager at that time. Robinson also sent several e mails
which virtually prove his misdeeds. In one e mail he says: “… a
copy of the certificate that has had magic done to it.” and also:
“… we do not want anybody to compare the magic with the
original.”
There
was another problem, 601 sheep were missing from the consignment, the
fact that would be found out at the slaughter house. Robinson wrote a
separate e-mail saying that as many as 601 sheep were ‘missing’
and that his colleagues should fudge the figure in order to avoid a
government probe. He says in his e mail: “We’ll need to add the
601 heads discrepancy to slaughter figures so there are not 601 heads
missing.”
The
importer PK Livestock and Meat, flatly deny of any wrongdoing.
Company says that they have nothing to do with any alleged
falsification in export documents by the Australian company and do
not know any person called Robinson.
The
whole sordid affair points out to the unscrupulous ways and
wrongdoings of 'Wellard,' who are now pushing the blame to an
executive. It is to be seen as to what action Australian Government
takes against 'Wellard,' who have simply and totally disregarded
sanctity of official documents by forgeries so they can avoid loss of
a consignment. Kudos to ABC 7:30 for an excellent piece of
investigative journalism.
3rd
May 2014
