Professionalism can curb shoddy works

Engineering

Shoddy works and structural failures due to problems in design, construction, and safety protocols remain frequent countrywide. Most discussions on mitigation measures emphasise regular supervision, stricter regulation, and even prosecution.

However, while all these suffice, the need for engineers to exhibit professionalism by adhering to professional ethics when discharging their duties cannot be overstated.

It is common to blame substandard materials for structural failures. However, professionalism requires engineers to test materials for conformity to engineering standards and suitability for the job. If unfit, engineers have the choice to reject the material, and the moral obligation to waive the project. Agreeing to use the same substandard material is not only unprofessional but also amounts to criminal collusion.

It is worth noting that most engineers implicated in shoddy work are local government engineers. Predictably, most of them are not licensed. According to the Engineers Registration Board (ERB), Uganda has only about 1,500 certified engineers.

This is a very tiny fraction of the thousands of engineering graduates joining engineering practice every year. We need to compel more of them to register. District service commissions should also consider making registration with ERB mandatory for recruitment in local government.

In the private sector, most engineers work for firms whose primary objective is profit rather than societal good. This puts engineers under pressure to compromise on technical aspects to meet profit goals. To resolve this, professional and regulatory bodies such as Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers (UIPE) and ERB should promote mentorship trainings that equip engineers to balance competing demands of technical expertise, business imperatives, and communitarian ethic.

Likewise, it is common knowledge that most engineers are poor communicators, which at times contributes to their woes. I know of a case where in reply to a government official inquiring about the cost per kilometre of some road, a district engineer bluntly told the official to divide the total cost by the distance. While this was technically correct, it was also unprofessional and easily misjudged. There is need for refresher training to enhance engineer’s soft skills, especially on work reporting.

Meanwhile, some clients these days say that all engineers are the same, so they simply want the cheapest. This is a misconception that some engineers are sadly helping nurse by undercharging their services to get business. In so doing, they are inadvertently fueling the growing treatment of engineering work and profession as more of a commodity and less of a specialty. This not only hurts fees but also degrades the service levels that engineers provide. Government should discourage this by standardising fees and penalising non-adherence.  Similarly, some contracting firms reportedly ‘hire’ the credentials of licensed engineers to satisfy contractual requirements. Thereafter, they enlist non-qualified ‘engineers’ to implement the project. While in some cases, this happens without the engineer’s knowledge, other times, engineers consent in exchange for money.

This calls for more accountability in contract administration and supervision to verify the availability of required staff and later, their presence on site.

Besides civil and building structures where shoddy work is easy to discern, authorities also need to pay attention to other sectors. In irrigation projects for example, interdependency of technical, ecological, climatic, and human factors makes it difficult to discern poor workmanship. However, mandatory irrigation design standards (currently lacking) can help us hold engineers accountable.

As well, professional and regulatory bodies should monitor and penalise all breaches of ethics warranting disciplinary action against their members. For its part, government should expeditiously amend the Engineers Registration Act, 1969 to check masqueraders. This is crucial in regaining the fast-eroding public trust in the profession.

Overall, professional bodies, regulatory bodies and government should enforce adherence to professional ethics, transparency, and accountability in contract administration, use of approved construction designs from licensed professionals, and retrain professionals, if we are to curb shoddy engineering works and minimise structural failures.

Eng. Joshua Enyetu,  Principal irrigation engineer  - Akvo International

[email protected]