GEORGE TOWN: The Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry (KPDNHEP) will intensify inspections of standard operating procedures (SOP) compliance on 22 trade and distribution subsectors, following several relaxations announced recently.

Its secretary-general Datuk Seri Hasnol Zam Zam Ahmad said the ministry would implement 'Ops Samar', where the inspection approach would be in plain clothes including more than 2,000 KPDNHEP enforcement officers posing as customers to ensure traders did not violate the National Recovery Plan's (PPN) phase one to three SOPs.

"A total of 22 trade and distribution subsectors have been given permission to reopen effective Aug 16, provided individuals have to be fully vaccinated to use these facilities.

"The opening of these sectors is a jointly balanced effort and responsibility for the purpose of boosting and reviving the domestic economic ecosystem, however, it is not an uncontrolled freedom for traders to ignore the SOPs that have been set," he told a press conference after visiting the Retail Industry Vaccination Programme (RiVAC) at Gurney Paragon here today.

He said stern action would be taken against non-compliance with the PPN SOP to ensure the SOPs are complied with seriously, and the safety and health of the people can be fully taken care of throughout the country in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hasnol Zam Zam said the Ops Samar would be carried out in customer-focused areas that had been identified such as shopping malls, eateries, barbershops and other economic sectors that involved the public.

"Premises owners and customers need to ensure that only those who have been fully vaccinated can do activities such as 'dine-ins'.

"What can be said now is that your movements are being observed by the enforcement personnel," he said.

Commenting on the RiVAC programme, he said it had received encouraging response from employers in the Klang Valley, Penang, Negeri Sembilan and Melaka, and would be expanded to Kedah, Perak and Pahang soon.

He also said the ministry was still refining the capacity and number of employers who want to use the COVID-19 vaccine facility for their employees through the RiVAC programme.

"Further discussions with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation will be held in relation to the proposed implementation of the RiVAC programme in other locations after this," he added.

-- BERNAMA