The President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology Ghana (IET-GH), Henry Kwadwo Boateng, has charged engineers not to compromise the values of the profession for personal gains.
“Do not be driven by greed. Do not lose your conscience. Do not be part of a system that puts personal interest above national development.
“You are entering a profession that must stand on the pillars of honesty, ethical practice, and moral uprightness,” Mr Boateng said at the induction of 220 new engineers into the fold of the IET-Ghana.
Competent
He said the future of Ghana depended on engineers who were not only technically competent but who also lived by integrity.
“We must no longer stay silent. As professionals, we have to take an interest in what happens in our country to speak against what is wrong and to promote what is right. The public must trust us. Let us lead by example.
“Let your work be clean. Let your conscience be clear. Let your name be one that will never be mentioned among the corrupt. You are here not just to practise engineering, but to reset Ghana and help build a nation where things are done properly and ethically,” he said.
Mr Boateng said he believed in the potential of the new engineers and also believed in their integrity and, therefore, charged them to go out there and prove that engineering with integrity was not just a slogan but their identity.
Troubling
In recent times, there have been troubling reports on cables and electrical materials procured for the Electricity Company of Ghana left at the port for years with some unaccounted for, and others deteriorating yet procurement of the same materials continued year after year.
He said, for instance, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana COCOBOD had also lamented about the procurement of jute sacks in excess quantities that remained at the port, unused, as new ones were still being purchased.
“One must ask: Who are the vendors? Who are the facilitators of this rot?
And more importantly: Were professionals like some of us here involved in these shameful acts?
“As engineering professionals, we cannot turn a blind eye to such issues. Many of us are directly involved in procurement, whether on the side of the public entity or the private vendor.
Let me use this occasion to make it abundantly clear: We must not compromise our values for personal gain,” he emphasised.
Formality
Mr Boateng said the induction was not just a ceremony of formality but a moment of reflection, responsibility, and rededication not just to “your personal advancement, but to the integrity and future of our dear nation.
Ghana, he said, today faced not only challenges of infrastructure, energy and development but a more silent and corrosive enemy: corruption, particularly in the areas where technical expertise and procurement intersected.
Mr Boateng took the opportunity to appeal to nurses in the country to call off their industrial action and return to work.
He said as the government took steps to address their grievances, they should consider the plight of patients and go back to work.
Going forward, he called for the scrapping of the nurses and teacher training allowances and to pay attention to their conditions of service.
“So it can do away with their allowances and rather look at their conditions of service.
I think that would be okay because now we have a lot of backlogs there, we have a lot of nurses who have not been employed by the government ...and we have a lot of teachers who have not been employed because of financial clearance,” he said.
