COREN inaugurates committee to flush out quacks on sites

The Council of Registered Engineers, (COREN) has inaugurated a committee, known as Engineering Regulation Monitoring, which is saddled with the responsibility to detect and flush out quacks from engineering sites across the country.

National President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Mr Ali Rabiu, announced this while speaking with journalists during an interactive session in Ilorin.

Rabiu, who is also the Chairman of COREN, said that the new Executive Order number 5 signed by the President Muhammadu Buhari had given the body the power to chase out quacks from engineering profession.

He stated that the committee would visit engineering sites to detect unqualified workers in the sites.

The COREN Chairman, said, “Before the new law was signed, we could do nothing, but the new law has given us more power to chase out quacks from our profession.

“That is why we inaugurated Engineering Regulation Monitoring. They will go to sites to monitor personnel; they monitor whether they are engineers, technologists, technicians or craftsmen and if quacks are detected, we will take them to a court of competent jurisdiction and prosecute them.”

Rabiu explained while fielding questions that the government through the promulgation of the new executive order had streamlined award of contracts, noting that it had made it mandatory that any contract below N2bn should not be awarded to foreigners.

He pointed out that there were capable engineering companies that could handle contracts in the country.

According to the COREN Chairman, “The government is making efforts to streamline the award of contracts with the promulgation of that Executive Order number 5. Expatriates do get job and deliver; our engineers can equally do the same but the issue is presentation and packaging.

“My advice to our engineering companies is to take advantage of this and package their companies very well because this is about competition.”

Commenting on efforts to check building collapse, Rabiu revealed that a mechanism had been put in place to check who was responsible for any infraction either in building or any engineering project.

He urged professionals to join politics instead of agitating that their members be appointed as minister or commissioner.