Minister Bagus closes Kulima Gold Shop in Kanengo: Rab Processors selling underweight fertiliser, cement
Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism has closed Kulima Gold Kanengo Shop in Lilongwe belonging to Rab Processors for allegedly selling underweight fertilizers and other products.
The shop has been sealed after discovering that most products like fertilizers, cement and Bosalts were underweight after being weighed before the Minister of Trade, Salim Bagus who made a surprise visit to the shop.
It was noted that the operating business license for the shop was not displayed and staff operating the shop failed to explain clearly where the valid licence was and they failed to fish out the 2018 license to confirm that they were operating legally.
Bagus told reporters that his Ministry has been receive a number of complaints that some traders are duping them by selling underweight products.
He said the complaints have vindicated the traders that they were doing a lot of malpractices through dubious means.
“We are now discovering that traders are operating their business without licenses and this has been noted in Blantyre and Lilongwe,” the Minister added.
He warned that his Ministry would now make regular routines to check what is happening in the country and warned that those that would be fined would be heavily fined.
“We just have a buyers complaining that he was sold over 13 bags of fertilizers which are underweight, the bags were weighing ranging from 39 kg to 48 kg instead of stipulated 50kg,” Bagus said.
He appealed to buyers to first ask the traders to weigh the products before buying them to avoid being sold underweight products.
Competition and Fair Trading (CFT) Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Martha Kaukonde said her organization would open the case against the shop owner and if found guilty the pay a fine which is K500,000 but we need to calculate to estimate the total value game .
She admitted that the selling of underweight products in the country is rampant although sometimes there are allowable differences of margins due to environmental state.
Kaukonde said so far they have opened over 250 cases throughout the country and 20 of them are touching on underweight products.
A buyer, Bright Kampaundi was found complaining that he was sold under weight fertilizers on Tuesday and on Wednesday he came to lodge a complaint to the shop owner.
“I came to buy 13 bags of fertilizers but I noted when I was loading them into the vehicle the bags were not heavy but later we weighed them at home where it was discover only five bags were weight 50 kgs but the rest are just 45, 42, 39, 48, 41 kgs,” he said.
Kampaundi added that this is very unfair to the buyers because they are buying products in wrong weight.
He managed to retrieve his money before the shop was sealed by Ministry officials.
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under the rule …..!!!!! no check points on commodities
This Minister should dare check with Central Poultry limited. They have always packaged their poultry feeds of 45 kg in bags labelled 50 kgs. I bet if Bagus is not doing this just for bogus reasons to impress his boss, let him pounce those amwenye.
Some of these problems come during transportation as drivers do take advantage of the situation and drain out few kgs of the product from each bag
some of the malpractises are done by the shop workers. They have their own bag sewing machines. So they open the bags, remove some kgs, then sew the bags again. They then later pack the commodities in empty bags and sell them. This will mean that they will have more bags and their internal auditors can not find them.
ALSO check with Optichem Company where their fertilizers are half sand each bag of 50kgs
The kilograms indicated on various packed items are only the same when packed but after times they differ due to evaporation and and loss of water quantity eg farm items ,wood ,fish will not have the same weight when sold as the one when packed even ADMARC do buy maize with high water quantity with heavy weigh and sell when dry the bags can lose up to 5kilograms so close ADMARC as well.
Up to 15 kg evaporation?
Weighing 48 Kg instead of 50 kg is an “irregularity” I hope the courts will look at the tippexed vote in the same way.
In Blantyre , since July , trade licenses have not been renewed. Some of the reasons given were
1. The department was waiting for the ministry’s instructions on the new fees to be charged
2. There was no cashier at the BT office and they were waiting for a cashier from Lilongwe
3. They dont have printed licenses and are awaiting for the new books from the Govt. Press
Till today licenes have not been renewed/issued
I blame Malawi Bureau of Standards which is failing to do its responsibilities that they are mandated to do. Frequently they are supposed to check weighing scales of businesses, check the pumps in all filling stations and even the Restraunts standards. I have evidence that filling stations in Malawi they tamper with Pumps and they are not reguraly serviced