The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Standards inspectors will be scrutinising gas stations by year-end to ensure consumers “get what they pay for” at the pump.

Dr Renae Ferguson-Bufford, the Bahamas Bureau of Standards and Quality’s (BBSQ) director, told Tribune Business yesterday that technical officers from its metrology division will begin going out to inspect petroleum stations by year’s end.

They will conduct verifications at gasoline pumps to ensure consumers are receiving the quantities they pay for. “Currently we have approximately 11 staff members on board at the Bureau of Standards,” Dr Ferguson-Bufford said.

“We have a couple of officers in the standards development area. We also have some technical officers  in the metrology division. We hope that by the end of this year, our officers in the metrology division would begin to go out into the public and begin to look at our petroleum stations and do some verification at the petroleum pumps  to ensure that our consumers are getting what they pay for.”

She added: “We want to look at calibrations at those pumps, verifications that if you pay $10 for gasoline that you indeed get what you pay for at the pumps in term of gallons.”    

Dr Ferguson-Bufford explained that the Bureau is mandated to ensure the accuracy of measurements within the entire Bahamas.

“We will also begin to verify balance scales,” she said. “We are mandated to ensure the accuracy of measurements within the entire Commonwealth. We want to begin to look at verification of all our balance scales in our grocery markets, in our distribution centres, in our small Mom and Pop shops, in the jewellery stores and also pharmacies.

“We want to ensure that the scales are properly calibrated. It’s a huge task, just getting the data in terms of how many shops we have and where they are located; that is a lot of work.

“We don’t have a proper industry set-up where you can just go to one place and get all the information. Our team is doing a great job in terms of going out and gathering the data as best they can.”

Dr Ferguson-Bufford added that the Bahamas is the last Caribbean country to develop a Standards Bureau.

“We have been mobilizing for the past two years,” she added. “We have just received staff members and we have at least five members in metrology.  We will begin to develop the data and  look at the structure in terms of how they would go out and begin to do this, and look at how many more inspectors we would need.”

The Bureau of Standards is the agency responsible co-ordinating the development and promulgation of national standards.