Chief Executive Officer (CEO), National Compliance and Regulatory Authority (NCRA), Dr. Lorice Edwards Brown, says that the entity is working to have legislation in place within the next financial year.
“You would have heard us talking and making reference to the BSJ (Bureau of Standards Jamaica) legislation because that still underlines and gives us the authority to conduct our regulatory programmes, but in a little while, the NCRA legislation will be in place,” she said.
Dr. Edwards Brown was addressing a virtual stakeholder engagement session, entitled ‘Stating the Facts: The Regulator’s Table’, on November 10.
The NCRA is an agency of the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, which is responsible for inspecting and monitoring food-processing establishments, inspecting commodities at the ports of entry and in the domestic market, and ensuring that the scales and measuring devices used in trade are accurate.
She said that the entity was working on a number of programmes, over the next five years, that will strengthen the confidence of stakeholders in its regulatory role.
“We are seeking to do that through accreditation in the [ISO] 17020 system and we also intend to do [others] afterwards… . We will also be doing the ethical ones… that impact things like bribery,” she noted.
Dr. Edwards said that the NCRA will continue to serve Jamaicans while empowering persons to make informed choices.
“What we want for our consuming public is to embrace the national quality policy, embrace the national quality infrastructure and recognise that as the regulator, our role will continue to be to register entities, to do the inspections, to monitor, to enforce, but we are also going to rely on you to become more engaged, to use the systems that are available to you, so that we have more informed consumers making more informed choices,” she said.
The engagement session aimed to inform and educate the public and other stakeholders about the role and responsibilities of the NCRA.
Source: JIS
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The Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce is described as Jamaica's "Business Ministry." It's mandate is to lead the development of policies that will create growth and jobs, while achieving social inclusion and consumer protection. The Ministry, working its stakeholders is primarily responsible for business policy development, monitoring and evaluation, while giving direction and oversight to a cluster of implementing departments and agencies.
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