A majority of consumers in the country are angry. They are painfully and powerlessly containing the wrath of price hikes by traders and service providers while the Consumer Protection Minister has admitted his inability to deal with the situation, blaming the problem on the world economic downturn and the adverse climatic conditions. Adding insult to injuries, the Minister is in the news everyday engaged in a number of inauguration and launching functions, and showing no interest at all in consumers’ hardship to meet their basic needs for foods. ICP reveals new evidence today that has caused this chaotic situation and calls on the Prime Minister to scrap the Consumer Protection Unit (CPU) and replace it by a more dynamic structure to be called the Office of Fair Trading (OFT)

New revealing evidence has now come to light. Consumers will be dismayed to learn that the Ministry led by Mr Michael Sik Yuen has never had a Consumer Protection Policy that sets out its plan to protect and safeguard consumers’ economic interests. Such a document has yet to be developed and elaborated, we are told. In other word, this means that the Ministry has had no plans whatsoever to tackle the problems that consumers in the country are facing. The Ministry is working in a vacuum.

The Consumer Protection Unit (CPU) of the Ministry, which is centrally located in an office near the Champ de Mars racecourse, is under-staffed. Consumers have to travel from the four corners of the country if they wish to complain against the wrongdoings of traders. The CPU’s Hotline is poorly serviced. Consumers who complain to their services are not provided with any feedback. Follow up actions are seldom communicated to complainants. This is no fault of the hardworking Officers. It is the work structure and the workload that need reviewing. There is a total lack of leadership at the CPU as it has been deprived of a Head for a few years.

Reports received at ICP indicate that consumers who have been brave enough to travel several miles at their own cost to call at the CPU office in person had been told that there was nothing that could be done against the practice of overpricing, because prices are not controlled and that the Mauritian economy is based on the ‘free’ market. It would appear that at this Ministry ‘Free’ market system means that traders are totally free to engage in any forms of ethical or non-ethical trade practices. This is a fallacy.

ICP strongly believes it is time that the Prime Minister steps in to end this amateurism and lip service that has been allowed far too long. Consumers deserve better and have a statutory right to adequate and decent protection of their economic interests. The current set up is unable to deliver to consumers’ expectations. A complete overhaul is urgently required.

It would make sense to axe the Consumer Protection wing of the current Ministry all together and add a new section to the Ministry of Trade and Industry or to any other Ministry and call it the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The officers of the CPU could then be moved to the OFT, with new mission based on a review of their functions and operations.

The OFT’s main mission would be to engage in more effective consumer complaint handling, dispute resolution, promotion of consumer rights, including right to real and efficient redress. The OFT can also generate consumer information initiatives such dissemination of information of comparable prices. Other new actions relating to telecom services for instance could be introduced. They could be involved in approval of telecoms operators’ itemised billing, metering and billing system they could also get involved in areas such as transport services, postal services etc. The OFT would be the ideal place for the implementation and operation of the Price Observatory initiatives, in line with ICP’s initial proposals.