A Special Taskforce has been appointed by the Liquor Board to “investigate” a number of complaints against the locally manufactured spirits across the Country.
This was confirmed by Chairman of the Liquor Board, Deputy Prime Minister, Tuala Iosefo Ponifasio in response to questions from Radio Polynesia.
The taskforce is made up of Chief Executive Officers from the Ministries, a representative from the Ministry of Police, certified scientist from the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa (SROS) and members of the community.
The mandates of the task force will include investigating the raw material imported to mix the spirits given the number of complaints by Judges of the court on a number of occasions that excessive consumption of these spirits leads to unrecognisable actions.
Tuala said the investigation is not limited to Vodka but its targeting all the local spirits manufactured companies.
Earlier this month, members of the public expressed concerns including former Police Commissioner Fuiavaili’ili Egon Keil, Logoipuiali’i Youth Organisation, Pastor Eric Poe in addition to the Judges following the incident out of Savaii where a man killed his brother following a rover drinking session.
They all expressed the same concerns over these local spirits; the majority of those consuming do not recall their actions.
The Deputy Prime Minister said preliminary investigations by the SROS as they have already tested the spirits samples a number of times and have not found any "impurities".
He added in an emergency meeting called with the liquor last week, they had the opportunity to canvas through the files for all the locally manufactured companies on their imports and the raw materials they are using and concluded to appoint a Special Task Force.
And so they are awaiting a full report by the end of the week from the Task Force in which will be deliberated before the Liquor Board and then tabled before Parliament for further discussion and final decision on the appropriate actions to take.
