Ho, Oct. 04, GNA - Mr Charles Amoako, a Principal Scientific Officer of the Ghana Standards Board, said on Thursday that the board remained committed to consumer protection and appealed for support from consumers.

He said the board had introduced unique individual product and standard numbers to check the abuse of its authorization mark. Mr Amoako was addressing a day's seminar for stakeholders and district assemblies in the Volta Region.

The focus was on "National Quality Infrastructure and ISO 9000 Quality Management system".

Mr Amoako said the board was aware of the influx of sub-standard goods in the country and was doing all within its means to address the problem.

He said staff of the board were detailed at all "approved routes" and expressed the hope that district offices would be opened soon to solve issues of sub-standard goods in the districts.

Mr Amoako, who spoke on the relevance and application of standards to industry, trade, business and society, underscored the importance of standardization.

He said standards provided a reliable benchmark against which performance could be judged, enabling businesses to demonstrate product performance.

Mr Mustapha Tawiah Kumah, Principal Scientific Officer and Head, Technical Coordination Services, said quality management standards at most Metropolitan, Municipal and District assemblies were very low. He said "many of the assemblies have no mechanism for planning, programming, control and evaluation of local government operations". Therefore, the assemblies are highly dependent on the central government for funding.

He urged assemblies to adopt and implement the ISO 9000 standards to be effective and responsible to the needs of people in their areas. Mr Darlington Bankas, Volta Regional GSB Officer, said the GSB would ensure that goods and services from industries were of the right quality and met the requirement of customers.