Strengthening the handling of violations of product quality

(Baonghean) - According to the Inspectorate of the Department of Science and Technology, through the inspection and examination in 2016, violations of standards, measurements, and product quality in the province still exist, causing frustration for consumers. Therefore, in 2017, the inspection and handling of violations needs to continue to be strengthened.

As of December 2016, the Department of Science and Technology Inspectorate has conducted 6 specialized inspections in the fields of standards, measurement, goods quality and industrial property; science and technology topics and projects. Of the 177 inspected establishments, 44 establishments were found to have violated regulations and were fined a total of VND 246,634,000.

Specifically, from March 21 to April 20, 2016, the specialized inspection team chaired by the Department of Science and Technology Inspectorate in coordination with the Department of Standards, Measurement and Quality inspected 46 petrol and oil trading establishments in the province. Through the inspection, it was determined that 12/46 enterprises had not been granted a Certificate of eligibility for petrol and oil trading but were still selling.

Authorities inspect a mini supermarket specializing in selling hand-carried goods on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street (Vinh City).

The reason was clarified to be due to the remaining procedures regarding land lease, construction, fire prevention and fighting...; currently, the Department of Industry and Trade is presiding over and coordinating with relevant sectors to implement measures to remove the obstacles. At the same time, it was discovered that 4/46 enterprises did not comply with the provisions of the law on measurement: using measuring instruments that were not inspected according to regulations. In response to these violations, all 4 establishments were administratively sanctioned by the Inspection Team with a total fine of 40,000,000 VND.

Implementing the direction of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Provincial People's Committee, conducting a wide-scale interdisciplinary inspection on compliance with the law on measurement in gold trading in the province, the Department of Science and Technology Inspectorate coordinated with other forces to inspect 54 establishments. It was clarified that 12 establishments violated quality (producing and trading products and goods with quality not in accordance with the applied announced standards); 1 establishment violated the announcement of applied standards (not announcing the applied standards according to regulations in the production of gold jewelry and fine arts).

5 establishments violated the labeling of goods (labels did not contain all the required information: lack of information on gold content); 1 establishment violated the measurement law (using the inspection certificate of the "technical scale" measuring device used to buy and sell gold that had expired). For the violations of the gold trading establishments, the inspection team imposed administrative fines totaling VND 87,700,000.

At the end of 2016, the Department of Science and Technology Inspectorate presided over and coordinated with the Provincial Police, the Department of Health, the Market Management Department, and the Department of Standards, Metrology and Quality to conduct inspections on standards, measurements, quality, product labels, codes, barcodes, and industrial property for prepackaged goods in the province. Although only 23 establishments were inspected, 17 establishments were found to have violated regulations.

Of these, 9 establishments violated the labeling of goods (imported goods with original labels in foreign languages ​​but no Vietnamese sub-labels), and were fined 53,500,000 VND by the delegation. There were 8 establishments trading in some types of foreign-made cosmetics without Vietnamese sub-labels, without invoices or documents proving the legality of the goods. The inspection delegation transferred the case file to the Market Management Department to handle administrative violations according to their authority...

Regarding the role of the Department of Science and Technology in preventing and combating commercial fraud, Mr. Nguyen Manh Ha - Chief Inspector of the Department said: Decree 24/ND-CP dated April 4, 2014 of the Government stipulates that the Department of Science and Technology has the task of advising and assisting the provincial People's Committees in state management of science and technology activities; developing science and technology potential; standards, measurement, quality; intellectual property, etc.

In Decision No. 44/QD-UBND dated June 11, 2016 on the assignment of responsibilities and coordination in state management of product and goods quality in the province, the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Science and Technology as the focal agency to assist the Provincial People's Committee in performing the function of state management of product and goods quality in the province.

At Point m, Article 4, Decision No. 44, the Provincial People's Committee directs the Department of Science and Technology to be responsible for inspecting and examining compliance with the law on standards, technical regulations, product and goods quality (with emphasis on applying the form of surprise inspection and examination), resolving complaints and denunciations, handling violations of the law within its authority; and announcing on the mass media cases of violations according to the provisions of law.

In recent years, the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial People's Committee have focused on directing relevant agencies to take drastic measures to prevent and combat counterfeit goods and trade fraud. Thereby, many violations have been corrected, contributing to a healthy business environment and protecting consumer rights, creating positive public opinion in society. However, there are still many production and business establishments that violate standards, measurements, and product quality; especially violations of product quality.

Goods of unknown origin at a store in Vinh city were recorded by the interdisciplinary inspection team.

Through the inspection work in 2016, it was shown that the complicated developments were concentrated in a number of areas that greatly affected social life such as the business activities of gasoline, oil, helmets, pre-packaged goods... Violations are often intentional, so the establishments with these behaviors are often very sophisticated to deceive the authorities and consumers.

Meanwhile, the system of legal documents on science and technology still has many shortcomings and overlaps, with many regulations that are not feasible, causing significant difficulties for inspection work (such as regulations on measurement and quality in gold and silver trading, regulations on measurement and quality in petroleum trading, regulations on inspection procedures, etc.). In addition, the staff in anti-counterfeiting and trade fraud activities is still lacking, equipment for inspection and examination activities has not met the requirements, the workload is large, the nature is complex, and the content is new, so there are many difficulties in implementing the tasks.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Ha also affirmed: “Decree No. 24 of the Government and Decision No. 44 of the Provincial People's Committee are both legal bases and instructions for the Department of Science and Technology to continue working with responsible functional forces to more strongly prevent violations of standards, measurements, and product quality...

To achieve effectiveness, in addition to recommending that competent authorities have solutions to resolve the above issues, we see that functional forces need to coordinate more closely to create strength in the fight against violations of production and business establishments. Thereby, there is unity in forecasting and developing implementation plans, especially in coordinating the implementation of surprise inspections to detect and handle fraudulent tricks in production and business to avoid the situation of coping by owners of production and business establishments...".

Nhat Lan