Empire Cement refutes claims of operating under unethical environmental conditions
GSA conducts market surveillance in Greater Accra region
The Ghana Standards Authority has disclosed the compliance and standards status of Empire Cement Ghana Limited - a firm accused of producing and distributing cement without proper authorization.
This comes after local cement manufacturers had raised concerns over the company’s activities and accused it of allegedly operating under unethical environmental conditions at a facility located in Weija-Accra.
A statement issued and signed by the Director-General of the GSA, Professor Alex Dodoo, explained that market surveillance activities, conducted in the Greater Accra region, discovered certain samples of the Empire Cement’s products being sold on the market.
The statement said preliminary checks on the samples indicated that Empire Cement has been using the Certification Mark provided for in LI 662 (as amended by LI 664) without a licence and certificate issued from the GSA.
“This constitutes an offence and is in blatant contravention of the applicable legislation,” the GSA highlighted.
“It misleads consumers and the public that your [Empire Cement] product has been certified as conforming to the applicable national standards and is both fit for purpose and safe to use; when it has, in fact, not been certified at all. Products that are certified are issued a specific license number which appears under the Certification Mark as approved,” the statement added.
The GSA however added that samples from the surveillance were taken for laboratory analysis in accordance with applicable legislation and national standards.
Read the full statement from GSA below:
Meanwhile, Empire Cement had earlier rejected claims of producing products without legal certification adding that it had not started making products meant for the open market.
The company according to a Daily Graphic report earlier said it had been granted permit to produce cement paper while working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a permit to commence cement production.
The accused company also said its cement packaging unit had been granted the necessary permits for the production of cement packaging products.
Local cement manufacturers had raised concerns over the company’s activities