Presidential quality award for top manufacturers
by Gwen Evelyn
THE Guyana National Bureau of Standard (GNBS) will next year introduce a Presidential Quality award for deserving manufacturers. GNBS Head, Dr Chatterpaul Ramcharran at a year-end press conference Monday, said his body is working with the Private Sector Commission, particularly the Guyana Manufacturers Association to establish criteria for the award for manufacturers who comply. Criteria will include the growth of the company and export potential. GNBS is also working on a national policy movement to motivate Guyanese to "think quality, act quality, behave quality" and move them into the quality arena, he said. "Quality should be part of parcel of them", he said. A national conformity assessment is also to be implemented and Ramcharran said this is being worked out with the Office of the President. In addition, testing and inspection facilities will be strengthened so that goods leaving and entering Guyana can be certified. Describing this as an important project, Ramcharran said labs will be set up where they do not exist to aid the process. He said there are plans to establish branches of the bureau. One will be at Springlands, Berbice to monitor goods coming through the border Corentyne River with Suriname; another at New Amsterdam, also at Berbice and a third at Anna Regina, Essequibo. These new divisions are intended to decentralise the activities of the main branch at Hadfield Street, Georgetown, Ramcharran said. GNBS also wants to position its inspectors at weights and measures offices in each region to deal with weights and measures full time. At the moment, there are no specific persons in the regions to handle this, he explained. Ramcharran said the GNBS also expects to obtain scale testing equipment, valued at $17M, to check all scales being used in all industries, including rice and sugar and at depots. A code of practice is also to be implemented in the petrol sector and this will cover safety, operation, use of tanks, dip sticks and other aspects of service stations. Another plan is establishing a laboratory to test gold jewellery and Ramcharran hopes this can be done next month. Also on the cards is monitoring the contents, weight and volume of pre-packaged goods. Ramcharran said a GNBS officer was recently trained in Jamaica for this purpose. The construction of a GNBS testing and calibration laboratory is expected to begin in the University of Guyana compound, Turkeyen. A piece of land has been identified and approved and funding is expected from the Ministry of Finance, the agency head said. He reported that the bureau recently handed over several sections of its proposals for a building code to the Central Housing and Planning Authority and the City Engineer's office. In collaboration with the Guyana Association of Professional Engineers and the institute of architects, a broad-based national committee is to be established to spearhead a national action plan to promote and implement the building code, he said. Ramcharran projected that this will be a massive project in Guyana next year. The GNBS worked on several standardisation projects this year and a major one affected used tyres. Cabinet approval was sought to make this standard compulsory for users and dealers, he said. Thirty-one importers registered importation of used tyres and dealers had to obtain permits to sell by the roadside. According to Ramcharran, the GNBS checks each tyre at the port of entry. Forty-six inspections were done at the wharves and 1,200 tyres were found defective and destroyed since the standard went into place three months ago. There has been improvement in the quality of tyres entering Guyana and the programme will be intensified next year, Ramcharran said. Establishment of medical laboratory standards was also looked at by the GNBS this year and Ramcharran observed that medical labs have been "springing up overnight" without quality assurance. So far, one lab has been licensed and several others are on line, he said. This standard will be taken to Cabinet to make it compulsory. The bureau also brought the weights and measures act into effect. And bureau officials are visiting petrol stations. Up to Monday, 1,036 pumps were tested and 689 pumps that were under delivering have been adjusted. Of those checked, 347 were accurate, Ramcharran said. A GNBS seal has been placed on those to prevent unauthorised adjustments, he told reporters. Implementation of ISO standards was also stressed this year and so was metrication. GNBS is also aware of all goods coming into Guyana through the inspectors it posted at Customs and Excise departments and two wharves for screening purposes, he said.
Green reiterates every effort towards city restoration MAYOR of Georgetown, Mr Hamilton Green has reiterated that every effort is being made to restore Georgetown to its former glory, including the provision of more social services. Delivering the feature address at the opening of the renovated Dorothy Bayley Municipal Centre and Public Health complex in South Road last Friday, he spoke about attempts to beautify the parapets and place more garbage bins about to curb the littering problem in the city. The facility, named after the first woman Mayor of the capital many years ago, offers maternal and child health care and houses the Environmental and Medical Health Officers. In the near future, the Food and Hygiene Department will be set up there to facilitate training for environmental officers, Green said. "We hope citizens can look forward to more improvement," he added. Green said, even though the country's state of affairs is not economically viable, certain social amenities take priority and he is hopeful that, next year, City Hall would be able to broaden its revenue base for satisfying needs on a larger scale. The Mayor remarked that Guyanese today pattern their lives after North Americans, with the notion that development takes place instantly. "Economic development does not magically provoke development. It depends on local initiatives, capacity and ability to utilise resources and respond to changing circumstances," he cautioned. Meantime, Green said he is positive the government will approve a financial proposal he submitted to expand social services to citizens. He declared it is imperative that the entire society come together and work to realise progress, or else it will crumble. Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Mrs Philomena Sahoye-Shury agreed that health care services are assets for development. She said it is quite evident that the Council is making a determined try to recapture the beauty of the capital and stressed that the task ahead for health officers is not only to preserve but serve the community in the interest of its residents. Sahoye-Shury, alluding to an observation by Green that, due to the economic situation in this country, privatisation of some social services is the way to development, stated: "Health is a necessity and I will not stand by and see this facility privatised." She urged citizens to rededicate their energies and commitment so that progress can be made. "Let us pledge cooperation to the City of Georgetown and bring it back to the Garden City we once knew and help could be accomplished through ideals, dreams, wishes and aspirations of citizens," she said.
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