Fake products expose weak system

WALK into any clothing, hardware or food supermarket and you will see products with non-English speaking labels on it.
Most are also counterfeit products. And you are sure to meet up many non-English speaking foreigners.
We are as baffled. How did these products and the foreigners enter the country in the first place?
That question can only be answered by relevant departments such as Labour, Immigration and Customs.
Counterfeit products are the threat of the marketplace and demands our alertness.
As our ports and border become centres of trade facilitating the movement of goods between countries, they have increasingly fallen victim to the illicit trade in fake goods.
It is no surprise that the movement of counterfeit goods is part of a flourishing trade with proven links to global extremists and criminal networks.
Counterfeit and pirated goods have become a serious global problem.
No country or market is protected to its reach.
Counterfeit and pirated goods not only has a marked impact on businesses’ prestige but also causes massive damage to our local Small to Medium Enterprises because fake goods are designed with increasing sophistication while selling far cheaper.
There is little doubt that our capital city has in recent years become a centre-point for dubious foreign traders whose backgrounds are just as the fake goods they sell.
All foreigners who enter PNG for business and employment purposes should be required to speak English, which is the language of business and education in this country. It should be optional for them to speak the two main local languages, tok pisin and Motu.
Another concern is that these traders of counterfeit and cheap products are using under-aged children as cheap labourers.
But how much longer are the other relevant government agencies, including Labour and Child Welfare, going to ignore the issue of child labour.
In 2007, a major government operation to check if foreign-owned businesses and workers were complying with PNG laws took place involving officers from the PNG Customs, Labour Department, Investments Promotion Authority, National Capital District Commission, Bank of PNG and police.
Findings showed that some foreigners are turning a blind eye to PNG’s rules and regulations or are either ignorant.
The operation was the result of public complaints about the influx of foreigners in the country and the fact that most were doing work supposed to be done by a local – selling betel nut on the streets, working in a road side shop, driving a forklift and the list goes on.
Labour found most were paying their local employers K2.60 per hour which was way below the minimum wage rate of K3.50 per hour. It is still being done.
It was also discovered foreigners were being paid in cash by their employers to avoid paying tax. Then you had unbanked cash, filthy and unhygienic kitchens; foreign companies allegedly avoiding paying taxes to the Internal Revenue Commission.
Findings from the operation indicated that if processes were followed and the ticks against the checklist done honestly, such scenario would not have come about.
The detection operation also shows a loophole in our system on the follow-up of compliance.
The filth uncovered then was a wakeup call for an investigation or an enquiry into some government departments operations.
People are sleeping on the job hence, all this crept through the system undetected or signed with one eye closed.