Eng. Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality has entrusted the Dubai Central Laboratory Department to oversee and inspect of legal measuring instruments in the Emirate of Dubai, based on the cooperation and authorization agreement in legal metrology signed between the Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology and the municipality.
The move comes as the continuation of the initiative launched by Dubai Central Laboratory called 'Accurate Balance' aimed at checking the accuracy of weighing scales in all types of commercial outlets.
In the beginning of 2013 DCL started to check accuracy of weighing scales in Gold and Jewelry shops which had a great impact in boosting the gold and jewelry trade in the emirate.
According to the agreement between DM and ESMA, DCL will assign it's specialized employees for the verification of weigh machines in supermarkets, hypermarkets, sweet shops, cooperative stores, butchery houses, restaurants, fish and vegetable markets, cargo companies and airports... etc.
The legal calibration in the future will include all legal measuring instruments, including but not limited to medical devices, taxi meters, fuel meters, pre-packaged containers, volumetric weights and compressed gas counters ... etc.
Eng. Hawa Bastaki, Director of DCL said: 'the initiative comes as part of Dubai Municipality's keenness to provide the best services for the community so that everyone in the emirate of Dubai can buy any product with peace of mind and lead a peaceful life as the civic body will never allow any type of manipulations in the market.
'Legal weights and measures are fundamental to a sustainable trading economy, the concept of sale and purchase cannot exist without them. In our everyday lives people make many purchases that rely on their confidence in the system that ensures correct measures, and likewise businesses need to know they are trading in a fair marketplace where no one has an unfair competitive advantage,' Bastaki said.
'The appropriate level of credibility of measurement results in the national regulatory environment must be ensured, which includes all activities for legal requirements on measurement, units of measurement, measuring instruments and methods of measurement which applies not only to trading parties, but also to the protection of individuals and society as a whole,' she said.
'Therefore, the mandatory control of measuring instruments through verification has been imposed by the Metrology Section of Dubai Central Laboratory - Dubai Municipality to perform Legal Verification on all weighing machines in the Emirate of Dubai, to ensure that the measuring instruments being used in the trading has to be approved and tested that they are fit for use,' she explained.
Eng. Fareed Mohamed Ismail said: The Metrology Section of Dubai Central Laboratory Department has been authorized by Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology (ESMA) to perform legal verification of electronic balances in the Emirate of Dubai. This is to ensure that measuring instruments that are being used in the businesses are giving accurate measurements and within the acceptable limits based on the applicable international standards.
'Dubai Central Lab sends trained Legal Metrology officers who holding in the judicial police to visit retail shops and complete series of verifications on the balances that the retailers/wholesalers are using by means of standard reference weights & advanced PDA to verify its competency and to make sure they conform to the UAE regulation,' Fareed said.
'In particular, they ensure that the balances are accurate to international standards, that the measurements they show are clearly and correctly visible to the customer and that they use the international metric system,' he further said.
Upon completion of the series of tests, the legal metrology officer determines if the scale is passed or failed. He will then put sticker on the scale as per the following:
Verified - The verified sticker means that the balance has been inspected by Dubai Municipality and verified to be accurate as per the UAE and international standards.
Rejected - The rejected sticker means that the balance has been inspected by Dubai Municipality and verified to be not fit for the purpose due to technical specifications or condition of the machine and not allowed to be used for trade in the Emirate of Dubai.
'Retailers/Wholesalers that continue to use rejected scales or try to tamper the Government seals will be considered as breach of Federal and Emirates laws will incur legal action' he explained.
'The sellers must use scales which are suitable for their purpose with respect to capacity, readability and accuracy, keeping the scale on a flat and solid surface having a clean environment with constant temperature and unaffected by air-flow,' Ismail said.
'They have to make sure that the scale is stable and the level indicator is always in the center re-setting the scale to zero before taking measurements,' he said.
He reminded saying that the weigh scale should be visible to the customer and must inform Dubai Central Lab if they change scale, have any kind of problem or query with their scale.
All the consumers have to do is to make sure that an verification sticker has been stamped on the weighing scale by Dubai Central Laboratory.
© Press Release 2014
