Guyana needs stronger consumer laws – Jordan
Minister of Finance Winston Jordan
Minister of Finance Winston Jordan

WITH the expected economic growth and massive investment forecast for Guyana, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan, and other consumer protection advocates believe that stricter laws are needed in several areas to protect consumers in Guyana.

Jordan, in an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, pointed to the banking sector, the hire purchase system, and credit card sector as areas where consumers in Guyana are not sufficiently legally protected.

“There are too many laws which are too many years old. For example, there are no hire purchase laws, and this whole issue of credit cards I don’t think we have credit card legislation specific to our consumers; and banking literacy laws we need that. You wake up one day you see something is taken out [of your bank account] just like that, no information, no reason, nothing,” Jordan reasoned.

Over the past year, the public transportation, banking, and retail sectors, are some of the areas which have come under heavy criticism by consumers, and continuously highlighted as sectors, in which, consumer protection frameworks severely lacking.
In public transportation, there is no agency bestowed with authority to regulate the pricing structure of taxis, which during peak seasons, as much as double their fares. The minibuses openly disregard laws against loud music, speeding and overloading. Notwithstanding attempts to deal with the situation, the agencies responsible continue to show that they lack the capacity to do it as the situation continues to exist with no end in sight.

Consumers have been widely criticising the banking sector, and in recent months, the attention has been placed on Trinidad-owned Republic Bank, which had effected several changes to its banking system. These changes were not smoothly implemented much to the dissatisfaction of customers, many of whom experienced delays in accessing their finances. Despite documented cases of the issue ongoing for some time, the bank, only last year, acknowledged that the situation existed.

Consumer Rights activist, Pat Dyal

Another situation arose last February, where the bank began taking money out of customers’ account without notice, saying that it was as a result of money that was not credited from accounts during the period November 4 – December 31, 2019.
Some customers accused the bank of deducting the money twice. Minister Jordan pointed out that such situation could not obtain in other countries.

“In the US the banks would send you a long list of consumer information as part of their requirements under the law. I would like to see our customers stop being taking for granted not only by banks, but all the other institutions operating in this country,” Jordan said.

In the retail sector, the biggest issues are refunds and warranties. Many of the stores are owned or operated by foreign nationals, a situation that has been ever increasing, and the nationals are often unfamiliar or purposely disregarding, the country’s laws.
Previously, many of the stores would often prominently display notices informing customers that they were not entitled to refunds, something that is against the law which provides for refunds. This situation has since been somewhat curtailed following campaigns by the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission (CCAC).

In the case of warranties, as recent as last December, the Guyana Chronicle visited several stores in Georgetown and were repeatedly informed by store personnel that no warranty is offered by the business on products sold, though the laws clearly provide for six months warranties to be offered.

“We need to really upgrade our standards and ensure that those investors who are coming here, whose home country require top standards of them, that they bring those standards rather than try to adopt the non-standards of Guyana,” Jordan said.

In Guyana, consumer protection laws include the Consumer Affairs Act of 2011 and the Competition and Fair Trading Act Chapter 90:07, there also legislation related to financial institutions such as the Dealers in Foreign Currency (Licensing) Act No.19 of 1989; Credit Reporting Act No. 9 of 2010; the Insurance Act; National Payments Systems Act.
Some of the Guyana’s consumer laws are enforced by the CCAC, which comes under the Ministry of Business. There is also the Department of Consumer Affairs, which focuses on consumer awareness and educational programmes.

The Guyana National Bureau of Standards; Food and Drugs, Analyst Department; and Consumer Advisory Bureau, also offer a layer of consumer protection with responsibility of policing certain businesses to ensure that standards are upheld.

The Bank of Guyana is responsible for policing the banking and financial sectors.
However, where there are laws that offer some amount of protection, consumer rights advocate and columnist, Pat Dyal, believes that there are issues with enforcement.

“For instance we have legislation where the Parliament unanimously passed a law against noise in the minibuses. For a few months the police carry it out but dropped it, and did not do anything further, so noise goes on in the minibuses as usual. That’s an example where the law is there but you have failure to execute,” Dyal related.
Hire Purchase is also an area where Dyal thinks more needs to be done to protect consumers.

“Hire Purchase needs to be considered by itself. When consumers buy things from [name of store] store you end up paying twice as much and that is wrong. Then there are seizures. Many people complain to me about being at the end of paying for the hire purchase items, have only about two or three installments and the people still come and seize it,” Dyal explained.

He also pointed to businesses re-selling seized items and in some cases displaying the items as new when they are in fact used. “That’s a scandal that consumers have to be alerted about,” Dyal said.

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