The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) is urging vendors, retailers and shopkeepers to safeguard themselves from fraud by ensuring that they check for its officers’ identification cards (ID) before allowing them to conduct inspections.
In a press release the GNBS said it has received reports that persons purporting to be its officers have been carrying out unlawful acts such as removing the verification seals from petrol pumps at gas stations countrywide and reusing them to verify weighing and measuring devices belonging to unsuspecting vendors and shopkeepers, at a cost.
The GNBS said vendors and shopkeepers should ensure that inspectors from its Weights and Measures (W&M) offices properly identify themselves by presenting or properly displaying their GNBS-issued ID cards and or the W&M appointment Cards signed by its executive director Dr Chatterpaul Ramcharran and Commerce Minister Manniram Prashad.
The release said too after verifying devices the inspector must sign, date (with the current date) and affix a new approval seal on the verified device. Payments must only be made to the Accounts Clerk accompanying the inspectors during the verification exercises and an official receipt must be issued. However, the inspectors stationed in regions two and six and the W&M officers in the other regions receive payments and official receipts are issued.
The GNBS said too it is not usual practice for inspectors to verify or stamp devices at individual shops or stalls, instead all stamping exercises are done at designated locations in the districts or markets. Vendors and shopkeepers are urged to report to the GNBS any individual who attempts to stamp their devices on their premises at a cost. The GNBS said concerned persons can contact its office on telephone numbers 219-0069 or 219-0066.
According to the release GNBS stamps devices twice yearly from January to March and from July to September. It said a different colour approval seal is used during each verification period and the current colour is purple. The release said too surveillance inspections are carried out at shops and markets countrywide from April to June and October to December. The GNBS said it will “take the necessary legal actions” against individuals who impersonate its inspectors.
