No end to ingenuity of poison milk perpetrators
0 
For example, prior to the 1930s one innovative type of accounting fraud was to exaggerate the value of inventory on hand by reporting non-existent inventory. The corrective measure came as a result of the famous McKesson Robbins scandal, after which the auditing profession instituted a rule that required auditors to physically test for the existence of warehouses and inventory stocks.
Each new corporate ploy to get around accounting and auditing rules eventually results in corrective accounting and auditing rules, which of course explains why the exponentially growing set of such rules is becoming almost incomprehensible today.
The regulatory authorities' crackdowns typically take place when industry cheating gets so out of hand that it attracts intense media exposure.
I am sure in the next few months criminals will be prosecuted, corrective laws and measures will be passed, and industry executives will pound their chests that this will never happen again.
Nevertheless, I am sure new criminals are already emerging in the dairy industry, and they will have to seek newer and more innovative ways to fool the protein test.
After possibly having a dose of plastic and leather in my milk, I challenge those would-be scammers to come up a formula for adding metal next time!
So what does this all say about future law enforcement in the dairy industry?
Given the existence of fraud cycles, authorities should keep in mind that any short-term measures won't be adequate. The government needs to concentrate all aspects of food inspection within one authority, which should be charged with the responsibility of instituting a molecular-level inspection program that makes sure every bit of material, ingredient and end product that ends up in people's mouth is 100 percent safe.
Of course this means higher costs for the industry which ultimately have to be borne by the consumers. But so be it. It's better to pay with our wallets than with our children's lives.
The author is an associate professor of the Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics. johngong@gmail.com
Go to Forum >>0 Comments