The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) will be continuing its surveillance at a wide cross-section of sales outlets to ensure that consumers get value for their money and protection of their health and safety.
The GNBS will be carrying out inspections at shops, supermarkets, hospitals, clinics, health centers, airlines, post offices, rice mills, shipping agencies and fuel stations, the Government Information Agency (GINA) said in a press release.
Head of the Legal Metrology and Standards Compliance Department, Shailendra Rai made this disclosure at a press conference at the GNBS office at the Exhibition Complex in Sophia.
The surveillance exercise, he noted, will continue into the next quarter of this year at sales outlets to seize and remove illegal devices and those that were not verified during the first quarter of this year.
In this regard, the agency is urging consumers and the general public to ensure that devices used to weigh or measure their goods bear the stamp or verification sticker of GNBS.
At the press conference, he also used the opportunity to give an update on the bureau’s weights and measures activities for the first quarter of this year.
Rai said emphasis was placed on the verification of weights and measuring devices used in the commercial sector to ensure the accuracy of such devices and that consumers receive value for money.
According to GINA, resulting from the verification exercise conducted between the same period in all regions except Region Eight, a total of 392 scales and 1,032 masses and 200 electricity meters were verified for the first time to be used in commercial businesses while 3,023 scales, 6,815 masses and one measure were stamped and verified for consecutive times.
“The consecutive one is those that are already in the system, which is being verified and stamped annually during the verification period each year,” Rai said.
In addition a total of 771 petrol pumps, 66 bulk meters, 25 storage tanks and 54 wagon compartments were verified of which 197 petrol pumps were calibrated, since they were out of tolerance.
And in the industrial sector, he said, a total 48 weighbridge scales including those used at rice mills and harbour departments were verified and stamped.
