Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
DESPITE ACCEPTING responsibility and apolo-gising for releasing 500 tonnes of faulty cement into the market earlier this year, Caribbean Cement Company Limited (CCCL) is now facing the possibility of heavy penalties under law.
A copy of an extract of the report carried out by the special investigative team, which was mandated to probe the circumstances surrounding the production and release of the non-conforming cement, chided the cement company for dereliction of duty and strongly recommended that it face the full brunt of the penalties under the Standards Act.
"Based on the findings that the root cause of the production of non-conforming cement was the failure of the management of CCCL to take corrective actions, the team recommends that the provisions for breaches under the Standards Act should be strictly applied to the CCCL," read a section of the draft report.
Senator Shirley Williams, Opposition Spokesperson on Industry, agreed with the recommendations.
RESISTED RECERTIFICATION
"My information is that Caribbean Cement resisted attempts by the Bureau of Standards to be recertified and, therefore, they must face full sanctions as provided by law," Sen. Williams said.
The draft report also revealed "there was no evidence of a fully documented, approved and implemented quality system that precedes 2004 except for the Bureau of Standards Jamaica's (BSJ) Scheme of Supervision for the Plant Certification Mark Programme."
According to the draft report, CCCL operated no planned internal audits and quality audits were limited to the BSJ's Certification Mark Programme or just the company carrying out inventory and status of instruments used in quality (control).
"From 2003 to the present, CCCL has not been under a certification programme with the Bureau of Standards, Jamaica and so no monitoring of the quality system of CCCL was done over this period," the draft report said.
The report added: "The product, however, was monitored by sampling and testing from the CCCL silos and warehouses as well as the marketplace."
Additionally, the investigative team also chastised the BSJ for its inadequacy as it relates to monitoring cement that entered the industry.
"External to the plant operations, the BSJ did not have an adequate programme in place for the effective monitoring of cement," the draft report stated.
The investigative team insisted it was expedient that the Civil Engineering Unit at the BSJ be equipped to carry out its function. "As a matter of utmost urgency, retool the Civil Engineering Unit by providing the necessary equipment and upgrading the laboratory environment to make it suitable for the testing of cement," the report stressed.
The investigative team, which was appointed by Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce, on March 27, was given six weeks to report its findings to Dr. Jean Dixon, Permanent Secretary at MITEC.
However, the seven-member team, which was also mandated to make recommendations to the minister geared towards avoiding a recurrence of the production and distribution of non-conforming cement, applied for a two-week extension to May 19. The team subsequently sought another extension and the report was finally handed over last Friday. Dr. Dixon said the report would have been submitted to Cabinet.
Minister Paulwell ordered the independent investigation after a preliminary report from the Caribbean Cement largely blamed human error for the faulty cement.
