The Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS) says compliance levels for tanker and motor vehicle inspections in the country have increased.
ZANIS reports that ZABS Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel Mutale disclosed that tanker inspections have risen to 95 percent while motor vehicle road worthiness inspections have increased to 60 per cent.
Mr. Mutale said inspections of trucks transporting fuel from Tanzania and East Africa into Zambia as well as Chirundu have risen from 364 in the second quarter of 2015, to 778 in the third quarter of 2016.
He said over 3,830 vehicles have been inspected from January to date for road worthiness under the JEVIC arrangement.
Mr. Mutale was speaking when members of the ZABS Standards Council visited ZABS offices at Nakonde border post to assess the bureau’s challenges in executing its mandate.
He however bemoaned the porousness of the Nakonde border saying this was hampering ZABS’ mandate of ensuring quality and safety of goods entering the country.
The ZABS Nakonde office has since collected K9.1 million as at the end of October 2016 from the targeted k11.4 million.
And ZABS has this year conducted about 800 local inspections across the ten provinces of the country with Copperbelt topping the list followed by Lusaka.
Over 215 inspections were carried out in the Copperbelt while Lusaka and Central provinces, which include the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport, recorded 171 inspections.
Some of the goods inspected include, beverages, fertilizers, engineering products, construction materials, cement products and packaging and textile materials.
Meanwhile, Nakonde District Commissioner Field Simwinga has applauded the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS) for being a corruption free government agency in the district.
Mr. Simwinga said ZABS has exhibited zero tolerance towards corruption in the discharge of its mandate of ensuring quality and safety of goods.
He was speaking when board members and officials from ZABS paid a courtesy call on him.
Mr. Simwinga has meanwhile urged ZABS to increase and intensify patrols around Nakonde and Isoka districts to curb the escalating trend of motor vehicle importers that evade paying statutory vehicle inspection fees for road worthiness.
And ZABS Standards Council Vice Chairman Victor Chitumbanuma said his delegation was in the district to assess what was obtaining on the ground.
Mr. Chitumbanuma noted that the Nakonde border was the most porous and busiest entry points hence ZABS was working towards remedying the situation.
