Standards bureau praised for good work |09 November 2010
This was after staff of the Seychelles Bureau of Standards (SBS) gave the Minister for Investment, Natural Resources and Industry a tour of their building at the Providence Industrial Estate.
He was accompanied by the Industry Department’s principal secretary Lucy Athanasius, and also present was the SBS chief executive Amy Quatre.
Mr Sinon expressed his gratitude to the technicians for their remarkable job, which he said has “ensured that we are adopting international standards”.
He was also happy to learn that the bureau is now putting its effort into a new project to get all fish testing and calibration laboratories accredited under the ISO 17025 standard.
This is a new requirement set by the European Union (EU), which is our main fish exports outlet.
“The SBS staff are working hard to see that what we export – such as industrial and semi-industrial fish – is of good quality,” he added.
It is not easy to export fish to the EU countries as they are very demanding, but the SBS has managed to do it, he said.
Mr Sinon said the bureau must keep improving so as to adopt higher standards for our consumers.
“We will have more regional commerce soon, and the SBS is a platform that will allow this as it is harmonising its standards to allow access to the World Trade Organisation,” he said.
The SBS has also made sure that disabled people have full access to its building. And it is
Mr Sinon said, just like other organisations, the SBS has its challenges. For example, to become accredited it has to buy expensive equipment and train staff to maintain such investments.
The SBS has to keep improving as standards keep changing, while at the same time retaining its technicians.
During his visit Mr Sinon also got an insight into several laboratories, including those for environmental, chemical, microbiological and instrument analysis.
Mrs Quatre said Seychelles has to comply with EU market requirements by getting its laboratories tested. EU inspectors asked for these new standards during their last visit in 2006, and they are coming back next year to check.
This project is costly as the bureau has to get new equipment and train staff, then bring assessors over to assess the system, she said.
“A laboratory that tests heavy metals was pre-assessed and is now recommended for an initial assessment next month,” added Mrs Quatre.
The accreditation is vital as it determines the competence of the laboratories, which have to abide by different parameters.
Mrs Quatre said an exhibition about the bureau and the work is has done will be on display today at its headquarters, as a follow-up to World Standards Day on October 14.
Disabled people and senior citizens have been invited, as well as guests from Praslin, to take part in the activities that have been organised.
The day will be celebrated under the theme: Accessibility for all with international standards –which stresses the need to make Seychelles accessible to everyone, including the disabled.
The SBS was set up in 1987 to provide standardisation in relation to commodities, processes and practices, and it employs 67 staff.
Its work involves laboratory testing, metrology, product certification, developing and enforcing standards, and science and technology information management and publishing.
Its new headquarters opened in June 2005 at Providence, and all staff moved out of the old building at Pointe Larue in 2006.