Keeping an eye on regulations

BUSINESS houses in Manus will now be monitored to ensure that there is compliance to Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) regulations, says a government officer.
Manus government business development officer Pius Kuweh, who is now an ICCC agent in the province, says they would now be able to ensure consumers in Manus were protected in relation to pricing, quality and reliability of goods and services as well as ensuring markets were competitive, efficient and well informed.
Kuweh and colleague Ruth Sale are the ICCC agents in Manus.
He said issues to monitor included foreign goods, expired goods and counterfeit products.
Kuweh said they would also monitor the sale of high technology items like memory cards, flash drives, laptops and boom boxes (bluetooth speakers).
“The customers buy these items from the stores but unfortunately they do not work well so we have to be aware of counterfeit products coming into the province,” Kuweh said.
Kuweh said he and Sale would also monitor the influx of products, particularly food, which were packaged with in foreign language because consumers needed to know what they were purchasing.
He said the sale of expired goods was also a problem they would address. “We have to keep an eye on expired goods,” he said.
“In Manus, we get goods shipped in and some items have a short shelf life and yet sold.”
Kuweh said in 2016 they had alerted the ICCC and with the recommendation of health inspectors removed expired goods from shops in Manus.