Engineers board to start regulating craftsmen
Dr Isaac Mutenyo, the Engineers Registration Board chairman. PHOTO/COURTESY/FILE.
The Engineers’ Registration Board (ERB) has said it is starting to regulate craftsmen including welders, artisans, technicians and masons.
The move seeks to equip them with better skills as well as enforcing construction standards.
Speaking during the World Engineers’ day in Kampala, Dr Isaac Mutenyo, the Engineers Registration Board chairman, said unlike the past when they paid attention to only engineers graduating through universities, they are now extending regulation to technicians with diplomas and certificates from technical vocational schools because they are the main culprits in failing standards.
“We have been having a challenge of shoddy work and collapsing buildings. We are forging the way forward. Previously we were regulating only engineers with university degrees,” he said, noting that during construction, technicians support the brains of engineers on the site yet they do not know their potential and skills set.
Dr Mutenyo said the World Engineers day, which was inaugurated in 2019 by the United Nations Educational Scientific Organisation, seeks to create awareness about the contribution of engineers to national development and emerging challenges.
Eng Samson Bagonza, the government chief engineer, said in the third phase of government’s national development plan, which runs from July 2020 to June 2025, government has identified 18 priority areas for investment, 11 of which concern the engineering profession.
“We have 11 priority projects in construction, buildings, bridges, water connections, bridges, power distribution, construction of dams, ICT and all these are engineering project,” he said.
Mr Peter Lokeris, the Works and Transport state minister, said the contribution of the engineering sector was an important facet in national development thus government had decided to amend the Engineers Registration Act to improve regulation in the construction sector.
