With MUHAMMED SAILU BAH
Welcome to another edition of know your public institutions column
which seeks to create awareness of the nature and work of public
institutions in the Gambia. This edition carries an exclusive
interview with the Director General Gambia Standard Bureau (TGSB) onthe establishment of TGSB.
Foroyaa: Sir can you please tell our esteem readers about the Gambia
Standard Bureau?
DG Stand Bureau: Thank you for that question, The Gambia Standard
Bureau was established as an Act of Parliament called The Gambia
Standard Bureau Act which was enacted in 2010, that is its legal
foundation.
The Bureau actually became functional, by that I mean the setup
started, staff were recruited the departments were developed in 2012
and that same year the standardization department was fully staffed
and started work on standardization, and a group of standards in the
area of food which was a priority, as we you may know it was developed
all over the country and finalized in 2013.
Foroyaa: How is the Standard Bureau structured?
DG Standard Bureau: The structure of the Bureau is like this, we have
a board of directors which leads the strategic direction of the
bureau, and also the mission of the Bureau, and they are the ones who
oversee the finances of the bureau. The members of the Board of
directors is actually specified in the act and it is composed of:
members from the public sector; that is the Ministry of trade, which
is our oversight Ministry, Ministry of Finance; and also the private
sector participation through the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, who appointed The Gambia Manufacturers Association to
represent them there. Because as you know as you know standardization
and quality issues are key in the area of manufacturing and through
the promotion of manufacturing, it is important to be represented in
the highest decision making body. Apart from that the other
representatives are the consumers, overall we are all consumers. If
you talk about quality, testing, standards and so forth, your overall
objective is to ensure that there are quality production and services
and these are the things demanded by consumers. So consumers are
represented in the highest decision making level of the Bureau, which
is unique to ourselves. I think we are the only institution in which
the consumers are represented at the highest decision making level
which is the board of directors. We also have representatives from the
academia; the Vice Chancellor who is sitting for the University of The
Gambia is also in the board of Directors so we have that.
We have the management level, which is headed by the Director General
which me Papa Secka, who oversees the day to day activities of the
Bureau and you also have different departments known as divisions. The
division of standardization, the division of metrology, the division
of Quality assessment and the division of information and media which
actually compose of standard information centre, as well as what is
call the TBT enquiry point (Technical Barrier Treat enquiry point)
and under it you have the different standardization officers
overseeing standardizations, the metrologists who are actually running
the metrology laboratory, which is the sub institution under us, which
defines the most physical accurate standards which are used to ensure
that there is accuracy in measurement in the country. In a nutshell
that is how we are structured.
To be Continued]]>
