Social Solidarity Minister Ali Al-Moselhi has decided to form a supreme committee to review the clauses of the contract concluded between bakeries and the ministry and to discuss the possibility to amend it before the end of this month. Al-Moselhi's decision came in response to the demands of the bakeries and the members of Giza Chamber of Commerce during the meeting he held with them on Sunday evening at the Chamber headquarters. During the meeting, the bakeries and the Chamber members said the fines leveled at each bakery amounted to LE 120,000. The meeting heated up because of the contract of bakeries and the fines leveled at their owners. Many bakery owners tried to storm into the hall of the meeting to call on Al-Moselhi to annul the fines leveled at them because they had not complied with the contract clauses. Many of them voiced their anger while the minister was talking about amending some clauses of the contract. They also demanded the contract be definitively annulled and the old system be readopted. Finally, they accused Supply inspectors of applying the law arbitrarily. The bakers erupted when the minister said it was necessary to increase the quality of bread and not to neglect specifications. They also called for halting the construction of major bread compounds, while the minister urged them to look at the public interest and not at their personal one. Al-Moselhi said a working group would be formed in each supply directorate to reconsider the fines leveled over the past two months. He also decided not to criminalize any leak of additional flour at the bakeries provided that this flour was registered in the books. He also called on bakeries to accept no bad flour in order to guarantee the quality of their products. The minister stormed out of the meeting after heated arguments with the bakeries. He then commented on what had happened at the meeting saying it could not even be called a protest. Speaking to the press yesterday, he said they were just few bakery owners who wanted to foil the meeting with the Chamber. He also stressed that the ministry would give no money to few transgressors. Meanwhile, an official source said the social solidarity minister had not invited the supply director to Sunday's meeting and that the director had learnt about it by chance.
