Acting CEO: FCCC focussing on rural, maritime areas
The Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission is turning its focus to rural and maritime areas, whose population they say are particularly vulnerable to exploitation by unethical traders.
Acting chief executive officer Seymour Singh said visits to the maritime regions had so far been restricted due to high travel costs. But Mr Singh said the competition agency was considering establishing a presence in the rural regions to protect consumers falling prey to “unscrupulous traders.”
He made the comments as part of his answers to the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs’ questions about FCCC’s 2014 and 2015 annual report.
The committee was chaired by Assistant Minister for Local Government, Housing and Environment Lorna Eden. Mr Singh said Government policies, including a budget increase from $1.7m in 2010 to $3.6m now, had allowed the agency to be proactive in promoting fair competition in Fiji’s economy.
The agency received 440 consumer complaints last year, 61 more than in 2016, but almost half from a 2014 high of 861.
Mr Singh attributed the drop to traders being “wary of enforcement actions taken by FCCC” thus becoming increasingly compliant.
The committee’s final report on the agency’s performance based on the 2014/15 annual report will be tabled in Parliament this month.
Mr Singh said the competition agency was considering establishing a presence in the rural regions to protect consumers falling prey to “unscrupulous traders.”