Engage manufacturers in formulation of quality control policies

The World Health Organisation (WHO) handbook on National Quality Policy and Strategy (2018) stresses the inevitability of quality control policies but emphasizes that they should not cause financial hardships to the users.

It adds that a good national quality policy strategy should be safe, effective, integrated, efficient, accessible, equitable, and people-centred. There is a high correlation between quality control policies and the financial health of manufacturing firms or companies.

However, these are moderated by the prevailing economic policies in a country. A dive into Sustainable Development Goal One (SDG 1): No Poverty, portrays a perennial investment of efforts, time, human capital, and financial resources to reduce or completely eradicate poverty.

This can only be achieved by implementing sustainable economic policies that boost business growth, trade, and local industries. There are health considerations during the production of goods, but these should not be implemented in isolation of the poverty eradication goal. At the national level, Uganda has neither achieved its poverty eradication objectives nor its national health coverage.

The question still lingers as to why the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (Unbs) conducts little or no stakeholder consultations during the formulation of the national quality control policies.

Uganda has been a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) since 1995 and is obliged to implement measures to achieve legitimate policy objectives, such as the protection of human health and safety, or the protection of the environment without creating unnecessary trade barriers.

Unfortunately, Uganda’s manufacturing sector is engulfed by harsh quality control measures especially the hard and bureaucratic processes involved in obtaining a Q-mark by manufacturers exacerbated by confiscation and destruction of goods from shops even after certification.

Many manufacturers who are certified by Unbs produce several products and supply them to wholesalers and retailers all over Uganda or depending on their market geographical coverage and business size. Lots of businesses stand the test of closure ranging from manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and indirect support businesses that benefit from the multiplier effect.

Manufacturers of cosmetics, car tyres, processed food stuffs, beverages, among others put their goods on the market but face a lot of hardships due to Unbs’ quality control enforcement practices. It would be irrational to allow such manufacturers to sell goods inclusive of tax especially value-added tax (VAT) of 18%, corporate tax of 30%, and other taxes.

At that stage, goods are not confiscated. Upon reaching shops or outlets, the goods are usually confiscated from traders on the assumption that they are substandard and against the quality standards set by Unbs and not in line with the Consumer Protection Act.

Of what effect?

There are micro-businesses such as kiosks, and roadside vendors that entirely depend on the existence of other businesses including manufacturing firms and wholesale traders. Harsh quality control procedures imply manufacturers will either slow down their business or close.

The entire supply chain will be affected. The resultant effect will follow directly on those that depend on the existence of such large-scale businesses. This will not spare mobile money businesses, banking agents, food stalls, name it. Unemployment sets in, poverty, and pressure on the environment as people struggle to create their own jobs through environmental degradation manifested in the form of bricklaying, charcoal burning, or other odd jobs of a sort.

The government revenue is also likely to shrink exposing the Uganda Revenue Authority to options of new tax policies particularly increasing taxes such as on essential commodities such as fuel.

So what?

Quality control is vital at all levels. However, national quality control strategies and policies should be introduced by nationwide consultations with stakeholders especially manufacturers and traders.

Failure to address this, Unbs will continue introducing quality management regulations and enforcement practices that are not manufacturer-centered and this will directly sabotage the government’s poverty eradication plans.

Overall, all government policies should adopt a multi-stakeholder consultation approach before they are introduced. Otherwise, a lot of policies may not yield their intended objectives, but instead worsen the well-being of the populace.

The author is a researcher & director at Gateway Research Centre, Uganda