Saint Lucia Receives Prestigious Award for Metrology

Saint Lucia this afternoon put quality infrastructure, and metrology in particular, on the map in a big way, when the Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards was awarded the prestigious Award for Excellent Achievements in Legal Metrology in Developing Countries’ from the International Organisation of Legal Metrology (OIML).

The award was accepted on behalf of Saint Lucia by Head of Metrology at the SLBS, Mr. Anselm Gittens at the Inter-American System for Metrology (SIM) General Assembly being held in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. The small CARICOM country, and Member State of the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), is the first Caribbean island and the smallest country in the seven-year history of the award, to receive this accolade.

Although the SLBS is not a member of OIML, Mr. Gittens’ work and involvement in the international organisation has been well known for many years. An invitation has been extended for him to attend the next meeting of CIML (International Committee of Legal Metrology), which is the functional decision-making body of OIML, to present on the work done to develop legal metrology in Saint Lucia.

The OIML is the world’s premiere body for legal metrology and is an intergovernmental treaty organisation which was established to develop model regulations, standards and related documents for use by legal metrology authorities and industry. Legal metrology, which traditionally was called weights and measures, is the application of legal requirements to measurements and measuring instruments.

The award recognises what the OIML says is “steady and sustained progress in the area of legal metrology over the last 22 years”. It noted the significant contribution of the SLBS to legal metrology at the national and Caribbean levels despite Saint Lucia being a Small Island Developing State.

About the achievement, Director of the Bureau, Dr. Mkabi Walcott recently expressed the organisation’s appreciation for the recognition from such a prestigious international body, noting that such an award was the result of the commendable work of the staff of the Metrology Department over the past 22 years.

 

CROSQ congratulated the SLBS and Saint Lucia on the achievement, noting, “Whilst we were all well aware of the diligent efforts of the SLBS to develop a strong legal metrology system, it is fabulous to now see these energies being translated into international recognition, both for St. Lucia and by extension, the Caribbean Community.”