(Colorado Newsline) The entity in charge of making sure commercial scales, such as shipping scales and the ones at grocery store checkouts, has not been inspecting all of them as required by law, a recent state auditfound.

Scales that overweigh items can collectively cost consumers thousands of dollars per year.

“I appreciate you realizing that this is bad, because it’s really bad, and it’s in everybody’s best interest — both the consumer and the producer — to make sure that the scales are correct,” Senator Byron Pelton, a Sterling Republican, told people involved with the Measurement Standards Program at the Department of Agriculture during a Monday Legislative Audit Hearing.

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The program is within the state’s Inspection and Consumer Services Division.

The program audit found that it does not have accurate data on devices across the state, the number of inspections it conducts or the results of those inspections. It also found problems with the program’s enforcement processes.

“The division must have quality data, which this program currently doesn’t have. The division really can’t monitor the performance of this program without being able to tell what has and hasn’t been inspected on an aggregate level,” said Hudson Marsh with the Office of the State Auditor. “Right now, the division can’t even know if it’s meeting the annual inspection requirement that’s in state law, and that’s why the division needs quality data that’s able to provide that information.”

The division is responsible for licensing and inspecting devices such as the grocery store scales used to weigh produce at checkout, truck scales, livestock scales and marijuana scales. State law requires the division to inspect scales annually for accuracy and when it receives a public complaint.

Close to 3,500 devices across 636 businesses were not inspected in 2023, according to the audit and the division’s data software, AgLicense. Because AgLicense data is also incomplete, the total number of un-inspected devices could be higher.

Overcharged customers

Auditors also concluded that the division conducted price verification inspections on less than 1 percent of retail businesses.

That can have real economic consequences for consumers and businesses, as well as impact consumer confidence. Auditors highlighted one grocery store scale that was overweighing items.

“If this register was serving an average of 60 customers per day purchasing an average of $5 of weighed goods, that single scale would overcharge customers by $31,755 in the course of a year,” the audit reads.

Inaccurate scales that weigh higher value items, such as precious metals, can have a larger and more immediate economic impact.

It is extremely rare that we've noticed any actually tinkering with the scale. Most of the time when these scales are out of compliance, it is not for any nefarious reason.

– Hollis Glenn, of the Colorado Department of Agriculture

Division officials said that dust, debris and other environmental factors are nearly always the reason for scale inaccuracies.

“It is extremely rare that we’ve noticed any actually tinkering with the scale. Most of the time when these scales are out of compliance, it is not for any nefarious reason,” said Hollis Glenn, the Department of Agriculture’s Deputy Commissioner of Operations.

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The audit recommends the division establish a method for tracking licensed businesses and whether their scales were inspected each year, and create a policy about how to prioritize which scales need to be inspected.

In its response, the division said it will create and implement a standard operating procedure to track licenses and inspections. It also accepted the 11 recommendations in the audit.

The audit also found issues with how the division handles consumer complaints. Of the 35 complaints filed in 2022 and 2023, it did not follow up with seven businesses. In another incident, the division did not investigate a complaint about a grocery store’s inaccurate prices for over 14 months.

Division representatives told the committee that one challenge has been the increase of licensees across the state as more grocery stores, dispensaries and other businesses open with population growth. It creates a higher workload for a limited number of field inspectors.

“I would just be candid, and say there is no explanation for how it’s been handled in the past, and that’s why we’re really thankful for having that third-party, neutral look at this program to say ‘You need to do better,’ and we recognize that as well,” Inspection and Consumer Services Division Director Mark Gallegos told the committee.

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