Mincommerce yesterday met with stakeholders to ensure quality and quantity supply.

The Minister of Trade (Mincommerce), Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, has promised to hit hard at dealers in iron rods who do not respect norms and who would institute artificial scarcity to feed fat on citizens and cripple the country’s development. The Minister took the firm resolution in Yaounde yesterday March 15 during a meeting with stakeholders (producers, importers and distributors) of the products.

Yesterday’s meeting came within a backdrop of repeated outcry over the non-respect of norms whereby producers and importers alike dupe customers with 5.5-metre rods in place of 6 metres and 11.5-metre in place of 12-metre iron rods. The consequences are telling on the infrastructure projects executed in the country. Buildings crumbling like parks of cards and others losing form soon after construction, are palpable consequences of the anomalies.

Speaking during the meeting, Mr Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana said government has taken a firm stand on sustainable development wherein quality and quantity construction rods constitute some of the indispensable tools. “The respect of homologated prices is as important as ensuring that quality and quantity rods exist to meet growing demand. The respect of norms is non-negotiable and business people who have been cheating on norms will be severely sanctioned,” the Minister warned.

It emerged from the ensuing discussions that most, if not all, dealers in iron rods have, consciously or unconsciously, been functioning in illegality vis-à-vis existing norms. Normally, the National Agency for Norms and Quality (ANOR) issues waivers to facilitate importation after which quality controls are supposed to be carried out so as to issue certificates of conformity before the products get to the market. Instead, most importers who obtained the waivers imported their rods and began selling. Whether they actually imported what the certificates indicated remains a myth but that the market is inundated with everything but standard iron rods answers the question.

While an ANOR official at the meeting spoke on the need to verify and authenticate the iron rods at the seaport before they get to the market, a representative of the National Society of Civil Engineers pleaded for intensive and unannounced control visit to construction sites to track down and punish defaulters on one hand and halt work on the other. Meanwhile, Labogenie pledged its availability, insisting on teamwork between all and sundry to bid farewell to the malpractice that has devastating consequences on development that the country yearns for.