Consumers rely on a system of measurement that ensures accurate quantities of goods are provided to them. Likewise, businesses, especially retailers of goods, need to know that they are not incurring losses due to the use of inaccurate or defective weighing and measuring devices.
The 1981 Weights & Measures Act gives the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) the mandate to verify all devices used in trade. The GNBS examines these devices to determine their fitness for use and conducts tests to ensure their accuracy.
Verification of a Scale
The accuracy of measurements in commerce, for example, a kilogramme of potatoes or chicken determined by a scale in the market or your local shop is ultimately traceable to physical standards used by the GNBS, which are traceable to International Standards.
This traceability allows for accurate and reliable measurements on the local and international markets, and provides for consistency of measurements worldwide. Consumers can therefore have confidence in the accuracy of the local systems of weights and measures.
Devices verified by the GNBS include: all scales, masses, measures, storage tanks, flow meters, measuring rules, electricity meters and petrol pumps. These devices are used at shops, markets, supermarkets, in the rice and sugar industries, fisheries, manufacturing companies, hospitals, health centres, airlines, shipping companies, post offices, petrol stations and bulk terminals.
All importers and users of weighing and measuring devices are obligated to ensure that their devices are verified by the GNBS as required by the Weights and Measures Act.
For 2017, more than 30,000 weighing and measuring devices were verified countrywide by the GNBS. Verification of these devices for the first half of 2018 has already commenced.
Verification of Petrol Pumps
The mobile stamping of devices beginning on Monday February 05 and vendors and shopkeepers and other users of weighing and measuring devices are urged to submit their devices for verification. Devices can also be submitted for verification at the GNBS Head Office, Sophia and Sub-offices in New Amsterdam, Anna Regina, Vreed en Hoop and Lethem, the nearest Weights and Measures Office.
