The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) has said the mobile unit of its National Weights and Measures Programme will start verification exercises shortly, even as it plans to find new ways of meeting stakeholders’ needs and safeguarding consumers this year.
In a press release, the GNBS it has already started verifications at petrol pumps at gas stations. It also said that during last year, 978 scales, 2082 masses and 25 metre rules were submitted to the GNBS for initial verification. Subsequently, other new imported and locally manufactured measuring devices were submitted for verification, indicating that there had been an in crease in the usage of these devices in the marketplace. Defective devices that the agency had confiscated were also replaced and the new ones verified.
For devices already in use, 7,490 scales, 16,321 masses, 61 measures and 66 electricity meters used by vendors, shopkeepers, hospitals, manufacturing companies and other persons were subsequently verified. In addition, a total of 145 weighbridge scales, 85 large capacity test masses, 1,533 petrol pumps, 41 storage tanks, 31 tanker wagon compartments and 117 bulk meters were verified for the year.
Surveillance activities, which involved the inspection of devices used at shops and markets countrywide to ensure that those used for trade were stamped and in good condition, were conducted at specific times during the year.
Inspectors visited 7,809 stalls, premises and 787 scales, 752 masses and 6 measures were seized because they were either inaccurate, unverified or in a deplorable condition.
