by TREVOR YEARWOOD

OFFICIALS of the Ministry of Commerce, Consumer Affairs and Business Development checking petrol pumps islandwide are not "police officers or anything like that", but are simply testing to see whether motorists are getting exactly what they are paying for.

Minister Senator Lynette Eastmond, speaking yesterday after watching tests of petrol delivery volumes at the Texaco filling station in Sunset Crest, St James, said it was "difficult for them to ascribe malice to anybody. All they did was check the pumps and came up with their findings".

She noted, too, that operators of petrol stations just made the products available and had no hand in the calibration of the pumps and how much petrol the motorist got for his dollar.

This point was emphasised by manager of the Sunset Crest station, Eric Branch, who said: "We can't do any adjustments to (the equipment). We don't have the tools."

Government has been taking a closer look at the volume of petrol dispensed at filling stations since complaints by some motorists that they were being short-changed.

"Essentially, the results were varied within different service stations. You had some service stations that were fine, that the readings were within the tolerance levels," said Eastmond.

"You had some service stations that had one or two pumps that were under-delivering and you had some service stations that actually had pumps that were over-delivering."

In one case a petrol station manager was wondering why he was not able to make any money, until told of the over-delivery, she said.

Eastmond said Government was seeking to put a system in place that could effectively deal with concerns raised about petrol sales.

"I don't believe in punishing individuals when the system is not as foolproof as we would like it," she said.