By Saio Marrah
Speaking on the inefficiency of the Sierra Leone Standard Bureau to effectively execute its mandate, Member of Parliament, Abdul Karim Kamara (AKK) representing constituency 059, Kambia district on Thursday 20th May 2021, claimed that Sierra Leone Standard Bureau, does not have the equipment to execute its task.
“The issue with Standard Bureau is not that they don’t want to do the job, the issue is they don’t have the equipment to do the job, they don’t have the manpower, they don’t have the resources, and they don’t have the technical know-how,” he said.
The MP was speaking during the debate on the ratification of the African Medicine Agency treaty.
He added that the bureaus barely has one working vehicle and that it has barely 90 staff to cover the entire Sierra Leone which he said was not enough compared to their workload.
He went on to reference a statement by Paramount Chief MP Bai Kurr Kanagbaro Sanka III, who quoted a report from the BBC report that about 75% of drugs in Sierra Leone are fake or have expired. He said such indicates the inefficiency of Standard Bureau.
But the Leader of Government Business, Mattew Sahr Nyuma, cautioned the MP to stick to the point of discussion which was the treaty.
Speaking to Politico, the Assistant Director of Sierra Leone Standard Bureau, Tamba Kamanda, acknowledged that the agency is constrained but said drug testing does not fall under their purview.
He added that they have been finding it difficult to carry out their work effectively as they are supposed to. He said because of the challenges with vehicles and other resources needed, they have to wait on manufacturers to take their products to them for testing instead of them visiting the manufacturers. This he said affects their result because it is possible that the manufacturers will take the best to them.
He said: “One of our challenges is lack of vehicles. When we are doing fieldwork we need to go out and collect samples, we need to go out and verify petrol stations to ensure that they are not under-delivering, we need to go and collect samples and bring them back for testing. We engage in a lot of movements even sometimes we engage in market surveys for example but we only work with one operational vehicle to service the entire department,” he said.
Kamanda also cited the inconsistency of power supply as part of the challenges they face as it sometimes affects their testing.
However, he said with support from UNIDO and the European Union, the institution now have a Mass Laboratory System for the Metrological department which can be used for measurement of product in the country. He said UNIDO and World Bank are also helping them in the provision of certificates for products coming into the country.
He said their personnel are not enough for them to expand their operations to other parts of the country apart from Freetown and the Gbalamuya-Guinea Border.
The Sierra Leone standard decree of 1996 mandates Standard Bureau to conduct tests on materials or products with a view to ensuring compliance with standards designated and approved by the then National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC).
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