Accra, Dec. 8, GNA - Parliament on Tuesday went through the ritual of reading the Engineering Council Bill 2010 the second time. The exercise allowed debate on some of the amendments to be effected at the winnowing and consideration stages of the bill. The purpose of the bill is to establish an Engineering Council as a corporate body to secure the highest professional standards in the practice of engineering in Ghana.

A report read by the Chairman of Works and Housing Committee Mr David Tetteh Assumeng indicated that though Ghana Institute of Engineer had maintained a register of professional engineers, it had regulated the practice of engineers with little success. He said professionals that established councils had not only register their professionals but more importantly regulated their practice to secure high professional standards.

Mr Assumeng said the council would inject more sanity into engineering practice as engineers shall be required to conform to the ethics of their profession and approve local standards for safety environmental, technical, health and other appropriate international standards. He noted that the council would be required to have four registers- the professional engineers register, professional engineering technology register, engineering technicians register and engineering craft-man's register.

"A person will be qualified to practice only when he is registered in any one of the four registers," he said. Similarly engineering firms will be required to register as a consulting engineering firms, engineering companies, engineering service providers, manufacturing companies, fabrication repair and maintenance units and vendors of machinery equipment appliance and engineering materials. He stressed that private persons cannot operate engineering firms unless there is a registered engineering practitioner in partnership, joint venture or other permanent association with the person. This according to him would enable the council to monitor, evaluate and take corrective actions on the performance of engineering practitioners and firms.

Mr Assumeng said the board of the council would be expected to collaborate with the National Accreditation Board and other relevant bodies to certify programmes of education relevant for engineering. He said the board shall maintain a registrar of certificate degrees and other qualifications that met its minimum standards. Mr Assumeng said the establishment of an engineering council would provide enormous benefit to the society in the areas of improved quality of goods, work services, lower cost of production, improved infrastructure and standard of living and the facilitation of the achievement of middle income status.

He noted that the bill was organised in six parts that include establishment and functions of the engineering council, registration of engineering practitioners and registrations of engineering firms. The rest are registration of engineering educational programmes, engineering documents works and other provisions and staff financial and miscellaneous provisions. Ms Cecilia Abena Dapaah a ranking member of the committee said engineering as a principle and concept must be brought to the understanding of the ordinary person.

She said the ordinary man should be made to understand that engineering was a way of applying scientific knowledge to their everyday life. This she said would enable them to make inputs to engineering. She praised the effort of parliament in instituting the bill as it would flush out the charlatans from the engineering professions. 8 Dec. 10