The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) is set to start mobile verification of outdoor measuring equipment such as railway wagons/tankers, static tanks, underground tanks at filling stations, high speed flow meters, Deports and Aviation meters among others.
This follows receipt of a new mobile prover unit; the largest in the region, which consists of a mobile 5000 litre prover tank, a mobile platform (rig) and a skid.
The equipment, worth USD 49,000 (Over 180 million shillings) was delivered to UNBS by Intertek International, as fulfilment of the obligation by contracted Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVOC) service providers to contribute equipment to UNBS during the first year contract per contract cycle.
The mobile prover unit will be the physical working standard used to check accuracy of the measurements declared on tankers through calibration. This will be the basis for acceptance or rejection of tanks for trade.
Previous efforts to verify railway wagons involved a laborious assembly and verification of measuring equipment but with the new mobile prover unit, these challenges will be solved.
UNBS also received more equipment worth Sh200M from TUV Rheinland and SGS, and these are expected to improve service delivery.
The equipment received include; A Hot air oven that will double the capacity of handling parameters tested in the Chemistry Laboratory, thus reducing turnaround time, three incubators that will triple the capacity of undertaking microbiology laboratory tests, Five (5) Aflatoxin Rapid test kits, Two (2) Vehicle exhaust gas analysers and Ten (10) Portable Moisture Meters that will improve the quality of inspections done at some of the Imports Inspection points.
The UNBS Ag. Executive Director, Mr. David Livingstone Ebiru, thanked the PVoC service providers for meeting their obligations as per the contract and asked them to ensure that the PVoC program works, despite challenges.
The Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVOC) is a conformity assessment program to certify that products covered by compulsory Uganda Standards imported into Uganda comply with the applicable Uganda Standards & Technical Regulations before shipment into Uganda.
The conformity assessments are done by five PVOC service providers; three for general goods inspection (TUV Rheinland, Intertek International, SGS) and two for used Motor vehicle Inspection (East Africa Automobile Service Co. Ltd and Quality Inspection Services Inc. Japan).
UNBS continues to perform its mandate of developing, promoting and enforcing standards in protection of public health and safety, and the environment against dangerous and sub-standard products.
