Whither the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission

I must say I am very surprised to come across a news item about The Competition Commission of Guyana that was established under the Competition and Fair Trading Act (CFTA) of 2006. As a result of that, the Consumer Affairs Act came into existence and the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission was formed. From what I gathered, the body’s main purpose is to assist consumers in making proper purchase and investigate complaints from consumers and meet to a solution. Interestingly I’ve been writing of consumer’s plights for quite a number of years and never heard of them.

I decided to check their website and to my dismay, it’s incomplete, with only four posts. Clicking on one of the post to read more, a page pops up, informing you that the site is undergoing work. For such an important organization that is in existence since 2006 and only have four posts that’s not fully accessible, reading that they’ve only dealt with roughly 120 complaints made me question their existence, who’s funding them and if it’s feasible to continue.

Editor, consumers continues to be tormented daily with expired products, wrong weights, overpriced, inferior products etc., and despite various complaints via the media, I’ve never heard of the CCAC’S existence and whilst there are other bodies with similar responsibilities, they only appear conveniently. What I noticed with the CCAC is that their focus seems to be more on purchasing of vehicles.

Interacting, I know that government passed a law to remove inferior electrical products from the shelves, yet they are still available, especially in the Chinese stores. Construction and electrical materials prices for houses have escalated and no valid reason was given for such, but the bodies’ remains silent. There are many contractors going around, doing shoddy work, and no system in place to get compensation for the owners. So, is it feasible for these bodies to be in existence when they are not performing the duties they are supposed to?