Consumer Protection Division.

Introduction

Following are some of the major activities conducted by the ICCC through the   Division in terms of it’s work and achievements as per the ICCC Act outlined in the 2005 - 2007 Corporate and Business Plans.

Key Performance Indicators:

The Division has continued to focus its’ activities on three (3) key result areas geared towards ensuring a high level of compliance and enforcement to the various functions of the Commission. The first key result area is the creation of awareness targeting key stakeholders to comply with the relevant legislations and regulations administered by the Commission. The second key result area is the expansion of the Commission’s surveillance work in terms of monitoring the prices of declared goods such as tin fish, rice, corned beef, soap, flour, sugar, tea, milk, margarine and poultry, service standards and the handling of consumer complaints with regards to the conduct of businesses. And the third key result area is to continue and improve on the existing network with the relevant key stakeholders and partners in particular the Provincial Governments, National Departments, Government Agencies and the Industry Sector in effectively implementing the work of the Commission.

Most of the Division’s work is focused on price monitoring of fuel products, price inspections on declared goods and services, trade measurement inspections including packaging and net weight content inspections, complaints handling and investigations with regards to production and distribution of goods and services throughout the four (4) Regions. A lot of work also involved in the maintenance and continuation of projects initiated in 2004 and 2005 which have become part of the operations of the Division such as the update of the ICCC website, the production of the ICCC quarterly newsletters and the coordination of the Consumer Product Consultative Committee (CPCC) meetings.

Find below the table indicating the complaints received and handled and inspections conducted by the Regional Offices in 2006.

Complaints Handling

Complaints Handling is an emerging area that has continued to grow with Consumer education and awareness on the rights and responsiblities of the consumers and business houses.

ICCC Happenings and Achievements

The Division was able to achieve most of its targets as per its work program in the second half of the year. The following are achievements by the Division for the last six (6) months of 2006.

In terms of networking the memorandum of understanding (MOUs) signed with the relevant key stakeholders are paying off positive results in the areas of product safety and consumer health. The training with the department of Health on food and sanitation, joint PNG Power Limited inspections on illegal electrical appliances with the regional offices, joint awareness with the IRC on counterfeit products are some of the ongoing activities in the first half of the year. The continued production of the quarterly Newsletter and the conduct of the Consumer Product Consultative Committee meetings have contributed immensely in creating useful and appropriate awareness to the relevant private and public sector stakeholders. This sort of high powered awareness program has made many of the relevant and responsible agencies and jurisdictions to take it upon themselves to address and drive forward many of the consumer protection matters relating to the production and distribution of goods and services, pricing issues, standards, product safety and the health of consumers. Because of resource limitation, the Division has continued to share information and resources with stakeholders and partners in ensuring the continuation of the Commission’s work in a cost effective and resourceful manner. Although there have been some improvements in the work of the Commission, more work is still required to continue the momentum into the first half of the year 2007.

 BDO/ICCC Agents training in Buka

ICCC Agents training were conducted in Buka following the signing of the MOU with the Bougainville Autonomous Government (BAG) early this year. The trainings are part of the Commission’s commitment to equip the appointed ICCC Agents so that they can carry out Commission’s surveillance and monitoring functions in the towns and districts of the Autonomous Bougainville region.

 Implementation of the revised Trade Measurement Fees

The Commission was able to implement the revised Trade Measurement fees as a cost recovery for all the different types of Trade Measurement inspections and tests conducted on weights and measures instruments used by business houses for trading purposes throughout the country through the Commission’s four (4) Regional Offices. Prior fees have been very minimal and never been revised for the last thirty (30) years to adequately cover the current costs for conducting the inspections and tests throughout the country.

Find below the graph showing the inspections conducted in the Regional Offices in 2006.

Appointment of the Commercial Advertisement (Protection of the Public) Act Inspectors

Three (3) Officers within the Commission were appointed as authorized inspectors for the purpose of enforcing the Commercial Advertisement (Protection of the Public) Act by the Minister responsible for ICCC and Treasury. This means the Commission will now be able to monitor, inspect and take legal action against those businesses who infringe the provisions of the Act in terms of untrue, inaccurate, misleading, misrepresentative or unreasonable manner of commercial advertisement and for related purposes. This achievement will have a positive effect in protecting consumers or the general public from a lot of inappropriate commercial advertisements which has been a concern for a while now in the PNG market.

Training of Regional Office Inspectors

Regional Inspectors from the Commission’s Regional Offices were given training by the National Institute of Standards and Industrial Technology (NISIT) on packaging and labeling requirements as per the International Standard Organization (ISO) Packaging and Labeling standards. The Commission’s Regional Inspectors in the four (4) Regional Offices are now equipped with the necessary technical knowledge and skills to ensure business houses adhere to the required packaging and labeling standards in order to ensure the ethical conduct of businesses and the protection of consumers in PNG.

Following the training obtained by one of our technical staff in food inspection and HACCP in Madang organized by the Health Department, our Regional Office Inspectors were given the same training by the technical staff concerned. The purpose of the training was on how to conduct food inspections and identify the HACCP for food products. This training will be useful for our Regional Office Inspectors when checking on the expiry dates of food products or when attending to complaints from consumers with regards to the consumption of food products.

Consumer Products Consultative Committee (CPCC)

Three (3) Consumer Product Consultative Committee (CPCC) meetings were held this year as part of Commission’s strategy to address the rising consumer product issues such as expiry dates, foreign product labels, food contaminations, foreign objects in tin products, illegal and banned imported products, counterfeit/fake products and product recalls. Positive progress have been made with the PNG Business Council, IRC and IPO/IPA taking the lead to stop counterfeit and illegal products coming into PNG with the help of ICCC and other jurisdictions like the department of Health. One such example worth mentioning is the involvement of ICCC as part of the organizing committee for the APEC/IPO sponsored seminar which will be held in June 2007 on the enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR) in PNG. For more information see CPCC Reports.