Day 125 - 12 May 95 - Page 39
1 so actually we were getting less beef, 100 per cent beef,
2 than we were paying for. We had some -----
3
4 Q. Were they suppliers that had been supplying you for
5 sometime, yet you dismissed them?
6 A. That is out and out cheap. The specifications -----
7
8 Q. Had they been doing it for sometime and then you found out
9 about it, or what?
10 A. I cannot say that happened in each and every case, but
11 in some cases we found, made unscheduled visits to plants
12 and we saw employees, under direction of management,
13 putting ice into the meat, which added if it is fresh meat,
14 which added weight to the meat, that meant we were paying
15 them X cents a pound for meat.
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can you remember when that was happened, and
18 whether there was any ground for knowing whether it
19 happened for long or just started, and so on?
20 A. Well, during the course of carrying out my
21 responsibilities at the time, there were notices sent out
22 indicating that X meat supplier had been no longer
23 authorised and -----
24
25 Q. Just pause a moment. All I am asking at the moment is you
26 have obviously called to mind an occasion -- there may
27 have been more than one, but an occasion anyway-- when a
28 supplier was sacked because, on an unheralded visit, it was
29 found he was putting ice into the patty to give you the
30 same weight for less beef. All I am asking is, can you
31 remember when that was in time?
32 A. During the 70s, the late 60s and 70s. Another
33 example -----
34
35 Q. No, sorry I want to take it in stages.
36 A. The 60s.
37
38 Q. There was a specific reason for asking. How many suppliers
39 did that happen by your recollection?
40 A. I cannot recall the number. I would not be
41 the person -----
42
43 Q. No, but was it one or two or a dozen?
44 A. It was probably closer to a dozen. Obviously when that
45 happened it sent a very strong signal through the rest of
46 the community that that was something that was not going to
47 be tolerated within one of their peers -----
48
49 Q. I am just trying to get some particular facts without any
50 gloss at the moment. Did you have any basis for concluding
51 how long that had been happening, or might have been
52 happening?
53 A. First-hand basis?
54
55 Q. Well, can you express any sound view as to how long?
56 A. Yes, in some cases there was repetition of that,
57 repetition of using, going beyond our parameters on fat
58 content. As indicated in the book we had a certain range,
59 17 to -----
60
