ONE of the serious problems that bedevil our society is the blatant cheating and ripping off of consumers by many businesses which take several forms including poor quality goods at high prices and more commonly deliberate inaccurate weights and measurements, particularly since the official change over to the metric system. However, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) is maintaining an aggressive campaign to ensure businesses comply with standard required by measuring instruments but because of limited human resources it is difficult to monitor and police all businesses which deal with weights and measurements.
In the first place there should not have been the need for the GNBS to be spending so much time to track down these cheaters but the reality is that we have many dishonest and unscrupulous business people who in their greed for profits deliberately seek to rip off consumers.
Perhaps there is need to update our laws relating to inaccurate weights and measurements with a view to have stiffer penalties for those who are found guilty in this regard.
In our last Saturday’s edition it was reported by the National Weights and Measures programme, which is coordinated by the GNBS, that a significant number of weighing and measuring devices were verified by Weights and Measures Officers countrywide, for the first half of the year 2011. Officers managed to complete the verification, i.e., stamping of scales, masses and measures used for commercial trade at shops, markets, supermarkets, hospitals, clinics, health centres, manufacturing companies, fish complexes, rice mills, sugar and food factories, petrol stations and bulk terminals.
Verification figures for new devices for the year have indicated that 565 scales, 1,187 masses and 688 electricity meters were verified, while for devices already in use, a total of 3,714 scales, 7,463 masses, 32 measures and 60 electricity meters were subsequently verified.
In addition, a total of 59 weighbridge scales used in various industries and rice mills, 822 petrol pumps, 53 bulk meters, 12 fuel compartments for trucks and 14 storage tanks were verified.
“From the total, 207 petrol pumps had to be calibrated, since they were found to be inaccurate,” according to a statement from GNBS.
As regards the latter, there have always been suspicions by motorists that they are being short changed at these fuel stations but they do not have any means to really check whether they are being cheated. So it is not surprising the pumps at over 200 fuel station had to be recalibrated. This is an alarming figure and the fuel stations involved are most likely from the coastal areas because it is likely that because of logistical problems the GNBS are not able to monitor and police those fuel stations which are located in the more remote parts of the country.
Nevertheless the GNBS must be commended for its alertness and persistence in ensuring that the pumps at fuel stations give accurate readings.
Another area of major concern is at the markets and groceries. At these business places scales are placed in such a manner that consumers cannot see their settings and as such many consumers are ripped off. These unscrupulous vendors and grocers are also aided by the fact that Guyanese consumers still order their goods/vegetables in weights within the imperial system and the grocers and vendors get a wonderful opportunity of setting their scales at the wrong metric equivalent.
This is a problem which the GNBS will have to vigorously pursue through the development and implementation of innovative methods or else hapless consumers will continue to be ripped off.