Enforce regulations on engineering practice

The Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Ing. Kenneth Ashigbey, has urged the Engineering Council to strictly enforce the rules and regulations governing the engineering profession.

He said the council needed to step up its efforts to root out all the quacks in the profession and ensure that all engineering professionals were certified by the council.

“We have lots of people coming as engineers, but most of them do not have qualifications and the expertise,” he said.

Ing.  Ashigbey, an engineer by profession, made the appeal when a delegation from the Engineering Council paid a courtesy call on him at his office in Accra yesterday.

The delegation explored the possibility of using the company’s newspapers to propagate the council’s activities and mandate.

Continuous learning 

Ing.  Ashigbey said most of the country’s challenges were engineering problems and it was the duty of the council to help solve those challenges.

He recalled the Melcom disaster which claimed more than 14 lives as being the result of an engineering problem.

To remain relevant in the fast changing world, Ing. Ashigbey said engineers needed to upgrade themselves through continuous learning, suggesting peer review of engineering projects.

Ing. Ashigbey pledged GCGL’s support for the council.

Registration of engineers

The Chairman of the council, Ing. Augustine Kuuire, indicated that the council was working to ensure that the proper structures were put in place to ensure the effective regulation of engineers in the country.

As part of its mandate, he said the council would soon start registering and enforcing the discipline of registered engineering practitioners, engineering companies and firms, as well as regulate and certify the education, training and practice of engineering.

He added that the council would collaborate with the National Accreditation Board (NAB) and other bodies to certify programmes of education for engineering practice.

While fostering international cooperation with other engineering councils, Ing. Kuuire said the council would license relevant and appropriate engineering bodies to certify individuals and corporate bodies for initial and continuing registration.

“All engineering practitioners, engineering firms, licensed bodies and educational units that offer engineering as a course of instruction, as a matter of necessity must, therefore, register with the council,” he added.

He listed the engineering practitioners obliged to register with the council to include professional engineers, professional engineering technologists, engineering technicians and engineering craftsmen.

 Ing. Kuuire said the council was seeking a partnership with the media to sensitise the public to its mandate and regulations which would be enforced.

“The need to assure the highest professional standards in the practice of engineering for society and national development and to effectively promote the advancement of science, engineering and technology cannot be over-emphasised,” he said.