The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS), during March 26-29 and April 02-04, conducted outreach visits to the townships and surrounding communities of Mahdia, Region 8 and Bartica, Region 7, respectively. Conducting visits to these outlying communities is a crucial part of GNBS’s annual work programme as the Bureau continues to decentralize its services to communities away from the coastland. The visiting team comprised of the GNBS Executive Director, Trevor Bassoo and Heads of the Legal Metrology, Product Compliance, Corporate Communications and Business Development departments.
Apart from directly engaging stakeholders, including those within the regional administration, business owners and consumers, to understand and better serve their needs, outreach visits also provide direct support to GNBS Sub-Offices within the respective regions.
Notably, within the last five years, the GNBS with support from the Government of Guyana has managed to establish additional Sub offices in regions 1,3, 5, 6, 7, 8, taking the number of sub offices across the country to 10. Establishment of these Sub Offices across the country has tremendously enabled the access of businesses and consumers to reliable measurement and product monitoring services in their communities.
During the recent visits, meetings were held with the Regional Executive Officers, Mayors, members of the business community and residents. These stakeholders were very appreciative of the visits and shared several concerns and needs. These include the need for new National Standards, Training in food safety and other requirements, the reliable supply of measuring instruments and education on the requirements for the various products monitored by the GNBS. The development of an action plan to address these needs is being developed.
Meanwhile, several businesses were directly visited to determine the measuring instruments in use and the quality of products offered for sale which fall under the purview of the GNBS. These businesses include Cellphone dealers, Furniture dealers, Dealers electrical fittings and equipment, Tyre dealers, and Gas stations. The businesses visited were generally in compliance and were using verified instruments, except for a few who were non-compliant. As a result, their operators were educated on the requirements and were advised to be more intentional in the purchasing of quality items for retail to consumers.
Meanwhile, lecture sessions were conducted for four schools in the Barica and Mahdia communities, namely, Bartica Secondary, Three Miles Secondary, Mahdia Secondary and Mahdia Primary. A total of 137 students and teachers benefited from the sessions which sought to enlighten the young minds about the key functions of the GNBS, the importance of Standards, careers in Standardisation and Metrology and the importance of using the Metric Units of Measurement.
Before the end of the first half of the year, the Bureau plans to conduct similar visits to more of the outlying regions including Regions 1 and 9.
