By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
THE Bahamas Bureau of Standards and Quality (BBSQ) yesterday said it is aiming to expand its “bread and butter” after achieving 86 percent of the targets in its last strategic plan.
Dr Renae Ferguson-Bufford, the agency’s director, said it plans to hire more inspectors as it expands measurement verification services in a bid to generate more revenues and certify private sector standards.
Confirming that the bureau is moving “quite progressively ahead”, she said: “We have just completed a three-year strategic plan with an 86 per cent achievement of all of our targeted objectives. I would say we did quite well given that we are in our most embryonic phase of development as the very last member state of CARICOM to be coming out of the gate. Within that time we have developed our national quality policy, which we hope to this year fully implement.”
The Standards Bureau was established as part of the Bahamas’ commitments to membership in rules-based trading regimes such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), and is designed to both protect consumers and facilitate trade.
Dr Ferguson-Bufford said: “We have had our legislation updated, and hope to have this tabled in Parliament very soon. We have the Metrology Act and the Standards Act, in addition to all the regulations that help to govern the bureau.
“We have had legislation since 2006, but have not updated to ensure compliance to the WTO and technical barriers to trade. We have done a whole lot of marketing and are looking to expand in the areas of marketing and sensitisation.”
Dr Ferguson-Bufford added that the BBSQ has embarked on a legal metrology service, which involves the application of legal requirements to measurements and measuring instruments thought The Bahamas.
“All of our staff have been fully trained internationally and regionally,” she said. “We are looking to bring on more staff in this year as well. We have embarked on a legal metrology programme. We are looking to expand our legal metrology service because legal metrology is perhaps the biggest bread and butter for us. That will definitely bring a lot of revenue for us. We are mandated by government to regulate all weight and measurement activities in The Bahamas, and that is a Herculean task within itself.
“We have already serviced the entirety of New Providence in legal metrology verification for the fuel pumps, ensuring equity of trade at all of the gas stations. We have already serviced all of the local grocery stores and looked at all of the pharmacies, all of the hospitals and all of the ports.
“We have expanded our services to include Exuma and Long Island, and we look to do more of that on the Family Islands. We are hoping to begin to do blood pressure machines, LPG gas cylinders, and are also hoping to look at tires coming into the country.”
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