AMURU– Rice buyers at Pabbo town council located along Amuru- Elegu- South Sudan Highway, have raised a red flag as the dealers have made it a habit to cheat them through fake weighing scales.
The victims argue that the weighing scales that the rice sellers use are inaccurate. For instance, they said, one can assume he has bought 10kgof rice, but upon using the correct weighing scale, the kilogrammes come down to seven.
Cecilia Lakor, who has been buying rice for home consumption argues that she has been a victim on several occasions and that her pleas to the dealers to correct their scales have landed on deaf ears.
“The dealers are majorly women who have made it the tendency of using measurements that are not up to the standards. If you try to question them, you get it rough,’’ she said.
John Karanja, who buys rice in bulky from the same dealers said there is need for Uganda National Bureau of Standards [UNBS] to deal with the malpractice in the area.
“Imagine, the economic crisis we are going through, and one is cheated to that level. That is impunity of the highest order,” he said.
Mayor Pablo Town council, Camara Richard Okumu, acknowledged the problem, adding that several people have contacted his office with a similar complaint.
He however said he engaged the sellers, including some women, and accepted that they have been cheating buyers. He said they promised to use the correct weighing scales.
Okumu added that he has also engaged the office of the town clerk for mass sensitisation on the dangers of using inaccurate weighing scales.
“Being on the highway, customers might boycott buying things around Pabbo town and that will be a setback in terms of business and revenue to the council as well,’’ he argued.
He however said many inaccurate weighing scales have been confiscated by UNBS regional offices to be put right.
However, other businesswomen still hide their scales to keep on cheating their clients, he said
Ms Anna Adongo Kilara, a rice dealer said: “For sure some members, their weighing scales are not checked by the town agents and they end up cheating the customers. We are engaging our women to drop the vice since it might have a long-term negative impact on the business.”
UNBS Executive Director David Livingstone Ebiru recently said many traders, including butchers, are using fake weighing scales to cheat their customers.
Ebiru said that the UNBS inspection and verification exercise of weighing scales in many parts of the country is aimed at ensuring that traders use the right equipment. He spoke at the commemoration event of World Metrology Day in Kawempe last month.
https://thecooperator.news/unbs-accreditation-to-offer-iso-certification-renewed/
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