‘Help sanitise engineering practice’
Works and Housing Minister, Mr Samuel Atta Akyea has tasked the Engineering and Architects councils to facilitate the creation of a superintending body to regulate, sanction and standardise the education and practice of engineering in the country.
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He said the regulation and standardisation of the profession would help resolve stakeholder concern that majority of government’s contracts were given to foreigners because the engineers would now adhere to standards in the discharge of their duties.
Speaking to the management of the two councils and later with journalists after a familiarisation visit to some agencies under his jurisdiction in Accra last Tuesday, Mr Atta Akyea attributed the situation where government contracts were awarded to foreigners to the shoddy delivery of projects (with inflated prices) by some local contractors.
He, therefore, underscored the need for a superintending body similar to the Ghana Bar Association and the Ghana Medical Association to sanitise the industry.
The agencies he visited included the two councils and the Hydrological Services Department.
Superintending necessary
Mr Atta Akyea was of the opinion that such a body would help monitor the work of engineers and quickly pick out who did a shoddy job in the contract value chain to avoid a complete shoddy finishing which he said usually cost the government more to fix than what had been spent on the project.
He said that would also help to avert disasters triggered by poor professional work and also promote and encourage the adoption of professional standards by engineering practitioners.
In response to Mr Wise Ametefe, the Registrar of the Engineering Council’s plea for financial support, the minister appealed to the Council to find innovative ways of generating internal funds as government funds were already under huge pressure.
Mr Atta Akyea, however, applauded the Council for its impressive performance despite its limited office space, staff and logistics.
Architects Council
During his interaction with the Architects Council, its Registrar, Mrs Stella Arthiabah, appealed to the minister to help address the situation where more foreigners were being awarded government contracts.
She underscored the role of engineers and architects in nation building and asked the government to provide them with logistics so they could play their role more effectively.
At the Hydrological Services Department, Mr Atta Akyea urged the management to go beyond the department’s mandate and monitor/evaluate surface water bodies in respect of floods to leverage on the economic potentials of beach development.
For his part, the Director of the Department, Mr Hubert Osei-Wusuansa, requested that they should be allowed to replace staff who retired because 35 per cent of the staff members were currently above 50 years and would retire in a few years.
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