. Sichinga

By JAMES KUNDA –
COMMERCE, Trade and Industry Minister Robert Sichinga has challenged service institutions to be efficient in the provision of quality services to the public.
Mr Sichinga said service institutions needed to ensure that they set targets which would serve as benchmarks in their quest to serve the public.
The minister said this in Lusaka when he visited the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) offices.
Mr Sichinga commended the Commission for its efficiency, adding that effectiveness was cardinal in service delivery.
This is according to a statement released yesterday by CCPC public relations officer, Hanford Chaaba.
Meanwhile, CCPC Board chairperson Kelvin Bwalya said the Commission has conducted a survey aimed at understanding the cost of living and that of doing business in Zambia and Southern Africa region.
Mr Bwalya said the Commission conducted the survey in South Africa, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania and Malawi.
He said a similar study was also done in Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
At the same meeting, CCPC executive director Chilufya Sampa said the Commission had successfully handled 367 consumer cases since January 2014 and was targeting 700 consumer related cases by the end of this year.
Mr Sampa disclosed that the Commission has also investigated two cartels, 16 mergers and nine restrictive business practices within the same period.
He said CCPC operated on the 2011 – 2016 Strategic Plan whose focus was competition law compliance, consumer protection law compliance, visibility of CCPC and agency effectiveness.