A LOOK AT STANDARDS BODIES

Sep 25, 2016 News

STANDARDS CORNER…

Standards bodies, standards organisations, standards developing organizations (SDO), or standards setting organizations (SSO) are organizations whose primary activities are developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpreting, or otherwise producing technical standards that are intended to address the needs of some relatively wide base of affected adopters.
In other words, these organisations are responsible for developing standards to ensure that consumers are protected, industry is manufacturing products and providing services that are of acceptable quality, and regulators have the necessary requirements to conduct monitoring in the various sectors.
Standards Organisations or Bodies can be private or public, national or international and are set up within a country to develop, promote or where necessary, implement standards. Such organisations are established in almost every country in the world and they usually collaborate and support each other to achieve broad based objectives.
Some of the international standards bodies are the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the CODEX Alimentarius Commission and the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ).
Meanwhile, like the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS), at the national level there are the Bureau of Standards (BSJ), Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards (TTBS), the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards, etc.
The priority areas of interest for standards bodies depend entirely upon conditions and stakeholder requirements, especially the private sector, resource base and capacity of the organisations and public policies. Most Standards Bodies are geared to develop technical standards to improve production and trade, ensure safety and protect consumers against health hazards and fraud in all aspects of life.
The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS), (not to be confused with the Bureau of Statistics) is the National Standards Body of Guyana. It was established under the Standards Act No. 11 of 1984 and its vision is to improve the quality of goods and services in Guyana by partnering with Government, Consumers and Industry, through the process of standardisation.
In an effort to fulfil its mandate, the GNBS executes the following work programmes: Standards Development, Technical Assistance, Training Services, Auditing Services, Product Certification, Laboratory Certification, Industrial Metrology and Testing, Legal Metrology, Standards Compliance, Metrication, Codex, NAFP (Accreditation), Standards Information, and Communications.
The GNBS has always engaged in the process of continual improvement to meet the needs of stakeholders and as the national standards body, it will continue to collaborate with other national and international standards institutions worldwide to build capacity to meet those needs.

For further information, contact the GNBS on telephone numbers: 219-0062 -66 or visit www.gnbsgy.ory or facebook/gnbgy

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