Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa says the ministry of Industry and Commerce should re-examine the operations of standards firm, Bureau Veritas, amid concerns it was becoming a burden on local industries.
BY VICTORIA MTOMBA
Bureau Veritas is a conformity compliance issuing international organisation and is a leader in testing, inspection and certification. It was engaged by government last year and opened a local office in July this year.
Addressing delegates that attended the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce meeting in Harare yesterday, Mnangagwa said the presence of the global standards firm was creating bottlenecks in the movement of goods.
“With regards to that particular issue when the ministry of Industry and Commerce wrote to Cabinet, we agreed with the policy. Some of you might want to blame the ministry of Industry and Commerce, as it is their baby, it was an industry baby. We received the bottlenecks from Bureau Veritas. We have asked the minister and the deputy minister here to revisit and review this engagement as a result of the complaints we are receiving from business and commerce,” he said.
Mnangagwa said the Industry and Commerce ministry should re-examine Bureau Veritas so that they are able to give well-researched comments and explain how they were affecting business.
Delegates, who attended the ZNCC meeting, raised concerns that the Bureau Veritas have not added any value to business apart from demanding hard cash from business players. The delegates said the suppliers are supposed to pay $250 per each consignment, yet the company was paid $2,5 million.
The company was also blamed for checking documents only and not doing quality checks, which meant the work they are doing can be done by local players.
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Bureau Veritas operates in 140 countries worldwide. Currently, in Africa, Bureau Veritas offers pre-shipment services to Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Uganda, South Africa and Cote d’lvoire.
Last year, the government reached an agreement with Bureau Veritas for Consignment-Based Conformity Assessment that will involve quality testing of various categories of imported products with the objective of reducing imports of hazardous and substandard products into Zimbabwe. Through the arrangement government will receive 5% fees from Bureau Veritas.
