2020 CEEMS Award

Agus Suparmanto,
Veri Anggriono Sutiarto,
Dr. Rusmin Amin

 

Introduction

At the online 55th CIML Meeting, the CIML President, Dr Roman Schwartz, announced that the recipient of the 2020 OIML CEEMS Award was Indonesia, represented by:

- Agus Suparmanto
Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia

- Veri Anggriono Sutiarto, S.E., M.Si.
Director General of Consumer Protection and Trade Compliance, Ministry of Trade

- Dr. Rusmin Amin, S.Si, MT
Director of Metrology

Although legal metrology in Indonesia is conducted under an Act dating from 1981, the enforcement of a new revision of the Autonomy Law in 2014 provided an impetus for change to provide

• direct access from business to legal metrology service providers by face-to-face contact in all geographical locations which is a big challenge as Indonesia is an archipelago country with a population of 225 million,
• reduced costs (such as transport) for business, and
• more sources of contact from central government to perform legal metrology activities.

From four legal metrology offices in 2014, and 29 in 2016, there are currently 1 436 verification officers working in 322 verification offices across Indonesia, which is 63 % of the target. They are responsible for the verification and reverification of measuring instruments subject to legal control, surveillance, diffusion of legal metrology activities, and public education about legal metrology in order to enhance the awareness of the importance of measurements in daily life.

Traditional legal metrology authorities rely on their service activities as a base for legal metrological control. Consequently, they focus on simultaneously developing laboratories and offices, and increasing the number of verification officers. This strategy tends to require technology-based solutions to meet objectives, resulting in high costs and long timespans which are problematic in developing countries.

Indonesia’s challenge is to transform from this traditional legal metrology approach into a community approach focussing on increasing awareness of legal metrology. The concept of Legal metrology beyond technology: a new approach to increasing public awareness is underpinned by the belief that there are many ways to shape legal metrology to achieve the broad mission of providing better consumer protection at the national level, and Indonesia’s approach puts consumers at the centre of decisions.

The Directorate of Metrology’s 2020-2024 workplan focuses on building awareness of metrology at the national level, but is equally focused on engaging with others nationally, regionally and globally, in an education and awareness campaign on the positive impact of legal metrological control linked to metrological risk prevention and mitigation initiatives. Actions include:

• building networks and engaging institutions and organizations which focus on sustainability in consumer protection and fair trade, including local governments, non-government organizations and national, regional and international metrology and legal metrology bodies;
• promoting legal metrology activities by focusing on building national branding of legal metrology; and
• delivering a set of complex and interesting challenges for consumer protection on five strategic themes: “Always measured”, “Legal metrology improving consumer protection”, “Valuing our people”, “Everyone can measure”, and “Working with others”.

 

Certified Measurers and community engagement

Certified Measurers are persons working at traditional markets who have been tasked by local government to identify and inspect on a regular basis all measuring instruments used for trade in their market. Certified Measurers are formally trained on the theorical aspects and basic practical checking of non-automatic weighing instruments (NAWIs), which are the most commonly used measuring instruments in traditional markets. Apart from providing internal control to ensure measuring instruments used for trade meet regulations, Certified Measurers can assist consumers in taking action on compliance. 218 certified measurers have been appointed since the programme began in March 2019 and this number is continuing to grow, as the programme has been beneficial for local governments and traditional market management. Some supermarkets, hypermarkets and shopping centres are also interested.

 

The first batch of Certified Measurers for traditional markets (top)
and on-job training of Certified Measurers

 

Activation of Legal Metrology Communities

A Legal Metrology Community is a group of individuals who are aware of weights and measures and promote the importance of legal metrology through their daily activities. Many communities have been established such as a Bbke community with their tagline “where a distance is well-measured”, a group of coffee lovers with the tagline “metrology in a cup of coffee”, a music band with “a sound of metrology”, a women's community with their tagline “smart shopping with metrology”, and many more.

The objective of this approach is to show that legal metrology is everywhere in daily activities. By increasing awareness of weights and measures, consumers will be protected from deceptive and fraudulent measurement practices.

Friends of Metrology is a campaign to value legal metrology officers and individuals or communities who are contributing to legal metrology activities.

 

Metrological Award for Local Government

Run since 2010 by the Ministry of Trade, the Metrological Award has recognised excellence in conducting legal metrology services in 1438 traditional markets and 41 regencies/cities.

Apart from appreciating those who care for and support the legal metrological control system at the local level, this award also educates the community and adds value for legal metrological services within communities by promoting legal metrology issues.

 

Metrological award for local government in 2018
awarded by Minster of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia

An award for traditional markets which demonstrate that all their measuring instruments used for trade meet national regulations is a part of the metrological award for local government. A unique feature of each awarded market is the availability of a re-checker weighing scale which consumers can use to confirm the correct quantity of their goods. The re-checker is also a tool to control NAWIs used within the market, as it is a certified measuring instrument.

 

Establishment of the Laboratory of Creativity

To support the promotion of legal metrology to community and stakeholders, the Directorate of Metrology has established a Laboratory of Creativity. This is the first legal metrology laboratory which deals not with testing measuring instruments or prepackaged products, but with producing and broadcasting creative content on legal metrology.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Directorate of Metrology has used the Laboratory of Creativity to produce many materials for training and education, and has conducted many webinars and podcast activities through social media platforms such as Metrologi, YouTube, Direktorat Metrologi Podcast, Facebook, Instagram, and others.

The Metrology YouTube Channel (ME YOU Channel), has many videos for verification officers, inspectors, and Certified Measurers:

• Videos on how to repair NAWI;
• Videos on how to check NAWI in practice;
• Videos about metrology;
• Videos about the activities of the Directorate of Metrology.

The channel also has videos and webinars of events that have been conducted such as:

• Talk show Metrology in a cup of coffee (2019) to commemorate World Coffee Day;
• Webinar Metrology, Trade, and COVID-19 (May 2020) to commemorate World Metrology Day;
• Webinar How to involve market management in repairing weighing instruments (May 2020);
• Webinar Strategy to promote legal metrology in social media (May 2020);
• Webinar Legal metrology and new normal (June 2020).

The Research and Development Unit of the Ministry of Trade has conducted a study showing that consumers in traditional markets and modern markets now have an awareness index of 57.1, meaning that they have reached a high level of understanding about their rights when conducting transactions using measuring instruments.

 

Promotion of Legal Metrology to schools

 

Talk Show about Metrology in a cup of coffee

 

Working on the Laboratory of Creativity (left);
Live streaming of a course on calibration for mass standards (right)

 

Live Talk Show, Directorate of Metrology and Legal Metrology Office

 

Examples of promotion of legal metrology through comics

Development for the implementation of the OIML Certification System (OIML-CS)

Indonesia is developing the infrastructure, which will be finalized by 2022, to join the OIML Certification System (OIML-CS) as an OIML Issuing Authority. The priority fields are NAWIs (OIML R 76), gas meters (OIML R 137), and fuel dispensers (OIML R 117). Some laboratories are designed so that people can see the activities inside, and public tours are planned so the community can learn more about legal metrology activities and infrastructure.

 

International cooperation

Indonesia participates actively in regional and international fora such as the OIML, the Asia Pacific Legal Metrology Forum (APLMF) , and the ASEAN Consultative Committee for Standards and Quality (ACCSQ). In the last five years, in collaboration with the APLMF Secretariat, Indonesia has hosted training courses under the MEDEA project, and has been appointed as the focal point in developing a number of regional documents.

Indonesia also actively supports other developing countries in improving their legal metrology infrastructures. Many capacity building and other activities on developing metrological infrastructures have taken place in the successful South-South Cooperation between Indonesia and Timor Leste.