Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Senator Aubyn Hill, has directed that an independent operational audit is to be commissioned immediately into the National Compliance and Regulatory Authority, NCRA, and the Bureau of Standards Jamaica.

In a release, the Ministry says the assessment will involve the gathering of information from several entities.

The ministry says the audit will be done as it remains unsatisfied with the adequacy of information submitted to date.

As such, it is still investigating and gathering compliance and other reports.

Senator Hill also says the governance oversight of the two agencies must be collaborative between the two boards and strengthened.

Additionally, the Bureau of Standards has begun an “end-to-end” internal audit of both their testing methodology and turnaround time.

There will also be an audit of the NCRA’s sampling methodology and inspection activities.

The internal audit is expected to be completed within a month.

According to Senator Hill, the results will be submitted to the Ministry at that time with recommendations for operational improvements.