A GOOD number of fish vendors at the Honiara Central Market have reportedly overcharged their customers by adjusting the scales they used to weigh fresh fish.
A fish vendor who normally sells fresh fish but wants to remain anonymous claimed more than ten fish vendors have been doing this for sometimes now and are cheating customers.”
He said the esky owners and fish vendors would re-adjust their scale by loosening the screw inorder for the scale to look as if the fish are weighed more when the fish are placed on the tray.
“This practice has been going on for a very long time and its being kept a secret and members of the public are not aware of this.”
Our informer said some of these vendors have also warned other fish vendors not to report this to the Honiara City Council (HCC) and the public.
“If anyone revealed this to the public, they would beat us or prohibit us for selling our fish at the market,” the source said.
He added in a day these dishonest vendors would normally fetch between $1500 to $2000.
“This group of people have their own scale and modify it by removing some of screws to slack the scale inorder to gain extra pounds.”
The vendor said for years customers who are buying fresh fish from vendors using the scale have been robbed.
“Because they would spend so much money buying for a small amount of fish.”
Fish vendors normally sell between $14.00 to $18.00 per pound.
When contacted yesterday Honiara City Council (HCC) Acting Market Master Nandy Romano said his office is aware of the practise after receiving reports last week.
“My office is aware of this practise and this week our law enforcement officer will go around to check on all fish vendors and the scales they are using. If we find people who are using this, we will remove the scale and arrest them.”
The Market boss admitted that this is a bad practice because they are cheating customers.
“Such practise is not good because customers are spending a lot of money and get little amount of fresh fish,” Mr Romano said.
By DENVER NEWTER
