Dr Kwame Boakye addressing the SOVRAE at the conference at the Kpong Power generating station at Akuse

Engineers asked to scrutinise projects critically

Nov - 11 - 2016 , 10:59 2 minutes read

The Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Eco Informatics, an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Company, Ing. Dr Kwame Boakye, has asked engineers to scrutinise projects critically before they are finally delivered. According to him, engineers owe it a duty and responsibility to ensure that any project they undertake or supervise is properly executed.

Dr Boakye was speaking at the 2016 Annual Conference of Society of Volta River Authority Engineers (SOVRAE) at the Kpong Power House at Akuse in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region.

This year’s conference was on the theme: “Addressing challenges of project delivery, operations and maintenance in the utilities.”

Projects

He said project delivery, operations and maintenance were inextricable linked to life-cycle management of projects.

“Projects completed are expected to be turned over for operations and maintenance and, therefore, challenges in the project delivery eventually end up as problems during operations and maintenance when they are not resolved properly,” he said.

Dr Boakye stated that engineers ought to be mindful of the fact that “almost every major project that is designed to alleviate poverty, disease and increase economic growth in a way has great deal of engineering embedded in it,” he indicated.

He further observed that “when a project deliverable is deficient, the result is seen during the operation and maintenance phases; they become more expensive.”

To address challenges in the sector, Dr Boakye suggested that there must be transparency in the selection of projects and its management, including the establishment and consultation of project boards and development experts.

Advice

The President of SOVRAE, Ing. Darlinton A. Ahuble, said the society needed to position itself to offer independent advice to management and allied institutions, adding that “engineering challenges require a transaction and trans-institutional efforts.”

He added that “coordinated action among the utilities and affiliate engineering institution is vital to finding solutions that will benefit society and the nation Ghana.”

The Chief Executive of the Volta River Authority (VRA), Mr Kirk Koffie, said the future of power generation depended on young engineers, for which reason he entreated the experienced ones in the profession to mentor the former.