FTC, a model for other public institutions
December 11, 2017
Monday 11th December 2017, VICTORIA, SEYCHELLES: “In the end we want people to have confidence in the Fair Trading Commission”; statement made by the Chief Executive officer of FTC, Mr. Francis Lebon during the visit of the Minister for Finance, Trade and Economic Planning, Dr. Peter Larose and his delegation at the Commission last week.
During his intervention with heads and other staff of FTC, Minister Larose got an overview of the running of the Commission. Dr Larose stated that he is proud of what has been achieved and that with the young pool of staff there, he is confident that FTC will go far. He said that he is confident that the team will deliver and that FTC will be used as a best practice example for other organisations.
FTC CEO, Mr. Lebon explained that there is a need to reinforce the Commission, increase advocacy efforts and capacity building programmes, improve internal efficiency and organizational effectiveness. He said that they will work closer with other partners and stakeholders such as the Seychelles Licensing Authority to help curb mal practices. But for this all to work, Mr. Lebon said that we all need to be more responsible, and to ensure that we all know our roles, much more emphasis will be placed on educating people.
Mr. Lebon pointed out that expectations are high and can thus be very demanding. One of the main challenges being faced by the Commission is the lack of proper regulations in place to ensure standards. “We need to shape people’s expectations according to facts”, he said. “Not a lot of people are breaching the law, we have a lot of recurrent cases and we see the same people all the time”.
Mr Neddy Padayachy, responsible for the Consumer Goods Department, explained that, “we all need to be on the same wave length to eliminate product failure”. According to him, it is getting more difficult to get technical reports because of a lack of expertise and facilities. And on the other hand, Mr. Lebon stated that one of the best things that has happened this year is the allocation of a warehouse to store evidence.
A lot has been achieved this year said Mr. Lebon and their hard work has started to bear fruit; one of which is the willingness of businesses to work closer with the FTC. But said that liaising with other authorities still remains a challenge.
Another main challenge of FTC is the Legal Division, whereby there is a lack of a proper cadre to retain the young work force there. Mrs Sylvie Faure, the head of the Legal Division, said that this year they have achieved a success rate of 90% even with all the challenges. She also said that the Board of Directors is not on a full time basis and this creates a backlog of pending cases; something which she said should be looked into as well as the issue of retention of the staff in this Division.
Minister Larosecongratulated the staff for their devotion, hard work and dedication, whilstFTC’s CEO stated that “the time for FTC to shine is now; they can write a new chapter in the Commission”.
During the week of 11th December, FTC is launching its outreach programme especially for this festive season.