COREN constitutes c’ttee to inspect construction sites

The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) says it has established an enforcement team to ensure only licensed engineers are awarded engineering contracts.

The President of COREN, Prof Sadiq Abubakar, who disclosed this yesterday at the 31st Engineering Assembly in Abuja, said this was part of measures to curtail the activities of quacks in the industry.

Abubakar said the team tagged, “State Technical Committee (STC), would ensure regulation and monitoring of engineering activities in states while ensuring proactive and coordinated efforts to create a platform of action and performance for the various committees.

He explained that, “COREN considers the duties of the committees as the core mandate and intends to structure their activities to include timely inspection, surveillance, monitoring of Engineering infrastructure, facilities, plants, factories, etc.

“The STC members are going to be certified, licensed and authorised to enter and inspect all engineering sites. They will have a clear mandate to enforce the law that only COREN licensed practitioners must be allowed to practise engineering in Nigeria; including the power to issue Stop-Work-Orders and sealing of sites.”

On his part, the Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, called for a bill to promote local content in the construction industry.

He urged that there was the need for Nigerian engineers to handle 90 per cent or all engineering projects in the country.

He said, “In Borno State, local engineers handle up to 98 per cent of infrastructural projects. I think this is something that we need to do. There are many senators in the national assembly who can sponsor bills, many deputy governors and governors. I think we can put our heads together, we can on the issues of local content.”

He further said there were brilliant Nigerian engineers but that when they were not given the opportunity, they could not compete with foreign contractors.

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