The Community Assistant Group, an organisation that has been relentless in efforts to wipe out the growing inflation of prices and other malpractices which abound in the business community, especially local markets, has once again exposed another malpractice.

According to the outcome of their investigations, some unscrupulous butchers have adopted the dubious practice of cheating on buyers, by loosening the knots of their weighing scales, a criminal technique that enables them to under-measure their meat at the expense of unsuspecting customers. Revealing this to the Daily Observer at his office at the Serrekunda market, Buba Sarr, the chairman of the Community Assistant Group, emphasised the need for people to be educated about the dubious technique.

This, he said, prompted him to call on the authorities concerned to investigate the matter. He noted that they were collaborators in the general efforts to weed out such unpleasant phenomena.

Mr Sarr also told this paper that the butchers have also increased the price of meat and bone from D75 to D80 per kilo; and steak, from D90 to D100 per kilo, something he said they were doing at their own discretion. 

He further expressed dismay at the rapid inflation of the price of Irish potatoes, which he said had also been increased from D350 to D650 per bag. A bag of onion, he said, was also inflated from D300 to D600 per bag.

He, however, put the blame on importers of such goods, adding that recently, Armanti Irish potatoes and onions were out of stock. These, he said, used to be the best and most affordable and some other businessmen who buy these products from neighbouring countries inflate their price.