MONTEGO BAY — The Bureau of Standards’ new Montego Bay Regional Centre will save that state agency about $50,000 a month in operational costs while providing increased efficiency, according to its executive director Dr Omer Thomas.

The facility uses less space and the increased use of technology has cut the staff by more than half. Employees will now use small, hand-held computers to gather information in the field, and the office will offer video conferencing which will allow customers to stay in this western city and participate in fora being staged in Kingston.

The Montego Bay office was previously housed in a 1,413 square foot facility at Catherine Hall. But under the bureau’s rationalisation programme, which began last June, a decision was taken to move it to a smaller location and streamline its operations. According to minister of technology, Phillip Paulwell, whose ministry has responsibility for the bureau, the move was also influenced by the conditions at the Catherine Hall site which needed refurbishing and repairs to its faulty air-conditioning unit.

On Friday, Paulwell also symbolically opened three other regional centres in Mandeville, Ocho Rios and Savanna-la-Mar, and launched the bureau’s citizens’ charter.

The charter outlines the organisation’s promise to provide quality service with minimal waiting time, as long as the customer provides all the requisite information.

“The citizens’ charter says to the customers of the bureau a very simple statement: ‘we take seriously our responsibilities toward you and hold ourselves accountable for quality service’,” Paulwell said. “The bureau is established to promulgate and enforce national and international standards. It cannot do so with credibility if the organisation does not lead by example.”

The charter promises to cut the time it takes to test and grant approval for items submitted to the bureau. Rice, for example, can now be tested in 10 minutes, as opposed to the one-week timeframe of a year ago.

“Over a year ago, the turnaround time for canned ackees could be anywhere between six weeks and six months. Today, the bureau is giving the assurance that these results will be available in 18 days,” Paulwell said.