"Taqees" program stresses the importance of calibration in enhancing consumer confidence
The Saudi Commission for Standards, Standards, and Quality, as represented in the National Standardization and Calibration Programme, stressed that the application of legal calibration has a direct impact on the consumer, contributes to enhancing the quality of life of the individual and society, and provides effective solutions to any differences between the consumer and the calibrated service provider.
This came during a workshop held Wednesday, 24 August 2022, virtual in the Asharqia Chamber entitled "National Programme for Standardization and Calibration: Legal calibration in Saudi Arabia), presented by the Director of the Support and Business Coordination Unit of the Programme Engineer Obeidan Sendi, who emphasized that the application of calibration achieves the protection and enhancement of consumer confidence and raising the quality standard of the tools used, also contributes to "To enhance the quality of life of the individual and society by conforming measurement tools to national standards affecting society in the field of trade, environment, safety, health, etc., with a neutral (third party) entity to evaluate and resolve complaints and differences between consumer and service provider.
Eng. Sendi explained that the National Standardization and Calibration Program "Taqees" is one of the initiatives of the Saudi Authority for Standards, Standards, and Quality within the National Transformation Program 2020, which aims to conform legal measurement tools to the standard specifications to ensure the validity of the quantities sold by conducting technical checks and field verification.
Measured commercial transactions included the sale and purchase of goods and services that required a measurement process to determine their value, as legal calibration applied to devices used in commercial transactions (e.g.: Electricity, gas, water, speed meters, taxis, as well as non-automatic balances, fuel pumps), the purpose of which is to protect the seller and buyer through the application of fair trade, and to facilitate international trade in line with international specifications.
He continued that the product (or model) is calibrated before entering the markets, and adopts the model (during manufacture), through a certificate awarded to all measurement tools to ensure that they conform to the recommendations of the International Organization for Legal Calibration and relevant standards; Through this, it is ensured that the product model conforms to international specifications International Organization of Legal Calibration ", having provided, inter alia, a conformity certificate issued by the International Organization of Legal Calibration, A document explaining the measurement instrument's operational and technical principles and highlighting its metrological characteristics and a diagram of the dashboard and an example showing places for metrological control marking, Any other instrument-specific document provided for in the technical annex to the measurement instrument, adding that the model was then subject to preliminary verification which is performed on new or repaired or maintained measurement tools and prior to authorization of their use in the areas of the measurement system for the purpose of examining their conformity with the approved model and their response to mandatory requirements; This verification includes checking the conformity of the measurement system and its components to the National Model Certification Certificate and metrological inspection of the measurement system and verification of maximum error rates, and marking of protection on the core parts of the instrument's measurement system for non-replacement.
It is worth mentioning that the initiative "Taqees" started in 2015 with the proposal of the Saudi Authority for Standards, Standards, and Quality during the workshops of the National Transformation Programme 2020. The initiative and its detailed plans approved Supreme Order No. (54878) In 2016, in 2018, legal calibration was launched in Riyadh as the first phase under the name of the National Standardization and Calibration Programme "Taqees", thus expanding field services to all regions of the Kingdom and opening the space for the private sector to contribute to the provision of verification services under supervision "Taqees", and in 2020 "Taqees" areas and services expanded to include fuel pumps, non-automatic balances, electricity meters, and water meters.
