Improving country\\\'s testing facilities

Testing facilities, both industrial and pathological, lag behind the advanced type globally accepted as the standard, according to a report carried in this newspaper on Tuesday. What can be gleaned from the report is that the entire sector is disorganised as yet. Or else it is unimaginable that out of the country's 1,000 testing laboratories only 30 have so far received accreditation from the Bangladesh Accreditation Board (BAB). Still more surprising is the fact that the BAB itself is yet to get international recognition. This explains the situation prevailing in the area of quality control of products and services. A few export-oriented companies have on their own set up sophisticated equipment and machinery in order to comply with the high standard of their clientele abroad. But this is not the case for others in the export business and hence things go foul from time to time with the merchandise falling far short of the set standard. A case in point is the presence of higher percentage of lead in turmeric powder, a local company's product, which was detected in the laboratories in the United States of America but the local testing facilities earlier passed as safe for human consumption.
Setting up highly advanced testing facilities is more often than not beyond individual company or production unit's means. So there is a need for developing the expertise and facility jointly or as a separate institution like the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI). No matter how they are organised, the objective ought to be to develop them as world-class testing facilities. When a good number of such facilities come up, others will be obliged to maintain the set guidelines for calibrating their equipment and machinery. This is exactly how the manufacturers, exporters and other stake holders in the entire process can get their acts together for improving the quality of products and services. Poor facilities have already done enough harm to the country's export and image. Now the problem seems to lie with the status of the BAB. If it receives due international recognition and functions as an effective regulatory body, no ill-equipped facility can procure below standard testing gadgets and still manage accreditation. So, the BAB must expedite the process of getting its recognition.
Apart from the export goods, there is an entire area of diagnostic test, facilities for which are spread all over the country. Because involved here is nothing less than human health or in other words life and death depending on correct or wrong diagnosis of patients' ailments, this area deserves special attention. Calibration of testing gadgets should be strict enough so that the high standard of diagnosis as also uniformity can be maintained. The fact that diagnostic facilities lack adequate and sophisticated machines and equipment is not the only problem. Enough trained personnel to operate them are also not available. So this problem needs to be addressed at the same time. Last but not least, consumer goods -particularly the edible varieties of those produced for local consumption should also be brought under such stiff regulation regime.