The irony of their self-righteousness was apparently lost on the parade of public officials who commented to this paper on the sorry state of Jamaican abattoirs.

No one took responsibility. It was all an attempt of exculpation except, perhaps, for Basil Wright, the president of the Jamaica Association of Public Health Inspectors (JAPHI), who fingered his own members for their contribution to the mess. They had failed to ensure that the slaughterhouses were in good condition.

But Mr Wright appeared to know all along that "all the government abattoirs are a disgrace" and the failure of his members to do their job. The obvious question, therefore, was what did he, in his position of leadership, do about it?

Yet, it is not Mr Wright only who knew or ought to have known. Anyone who passes through a public market in Jamaica, particularly its meat section, has a very good idea of the unsanitary condition in which they exist. Indeed, it is not the first time that the squalor of markets and the abattoirs has been highlighted in the press, and particularly this newspaper.

So, for Dr Osbil Watson, who heads the Veterinary Services Division of the agriculture ministry, to lecture on the global requirements of food safety and the need for proper inspection is not good enough.

Where the standards are poor and people are at risk, Dr Watson's division has a responsibility to be be proactive - to raise a public alarm to the administration and to consumers.

Peter Knight, the director of the Environmental Health Unit at the health ministry, says decisions have to be taken in the interest of public health.

Surely, action has to be taken now. But where were Mr Knight and his bosses at the health ministry, all the time, in the face of this potential public health crisis?

We have to assume that they, like Basil Wright, would have been aware of the cavalier fashion, if not barefaced corruption, with which many public health inspectors appeared to have carried out their jobs. So, too, should have been the heads of the various local government authorities who have responsibility for abattoirs and markets. They all did nothing. Culpability runs deep.

Extrication from this shame demands urgent action, starting from the very highest level of the Government. For the failures at the abattoirs is a failure of management.