Undercover Inspections Hit Shops Amid Price Gouging Complaints

Shoppers feeling the squeeze at the checkout are no longer the only ones paying attention, regulators are stepping up, too. With complaints of price gouging on the rise, the Supplies Control Unit is ramping up its presence across the country, expanding its team and opening new offices to keep closer watch on essential goods. Now, instead of waiting for reports, the unit is hitting the ground with surprise inspections, aiming to catch violations in real time. Controller of Supplies Lennox Nicholson says this more aggressive approach is about one thing, making sure consumers get a fair deal as the cost of living continues to climb.

 

Lennox Nicholson, Controller of Supplies, Supplies Control Unit

“If we would have waited on reports or complaints from the public to go there and conduct inspections we wouldn’t have been conducting a lot of inspections and I’ll tell you why, because under the previous structure at the time, there was just a narrow range of goods that we have jurisdiction over. And oftentimes when the public called us and brought things to our attention, we basically had to inform them that it was not under regulation, so we did not have jurisdiction, and we could not address it. But a few years ago, the range of goods that we have jurisdiction over was expanded. So we have more access, we have greater responsibility, and we have a greater range of products that we can actually intervene in. So what we need to do is to get the public to start bringing us the information again. But what we decided to do was to start routine inspections. We incorporated it into our schedules, and we basically just go out and do the inspections on a random basis and try to maintain a presence out there. So that has been the approach. So even in instances where the public do not complain, we still take it, make it our responsibility to go out there and maintain a presence and ensure that things are moving the way they should. And with the expansion, now we’re in a much better position to do that because instead of traveling from Belmopan to Orange Walk, we have personnel there. They can operate in that environment and just move to Corozal back and forth as needs be.”

 

Nicholson explains that establishments targeted are based on the number of customers it serves to maximize impact as well as smaller, less visible establishments where the risk of non compliance is higher.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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