Quack engineers put Uganda’s construction sector on edge

The Uganda Engineers Registration Board (ERB) on Thursday said a total of 1500 professional Engineers out of 20,000 are registered by the Engineers Registration Board, which poses a threat to the construction sector.

This was revealed by Vincent Ochwo Olie, the president of Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers (UIPE) during the Engineers Forum 2018, which took place at Kampala Hotel Africana.

The two day engineers forum ran under the theme: “Sustainable use of Nile waters- The Engineer’s perspective”

“It’s very unfortunate to not that; while there are 700,000 registered professional Engineers in Egypt; Uganda has only a handful registered Engineers out of 20,000 practicing Engineers in the entire country”, he said.

He said ERB has acquired land at Namanve Industrial Park to put a permanent office to carry out regular seminars and training sessions for professional Engineers, but cited financial constraints on ERB to construct the premises.

He appealed to government to come to ERB rescue by availing funds for the construction of the said offices at Namanve, if they are to bring sanity to the Engineering sector.

Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, while representing President Museveni, at the function said: “Government is in the process of Amending the Engineers Act to address the challenge of masquerader engineers, responsible for the construction of shoddy building structure that collapse on people”.

He further said government is committed to supporting professional Engineers, as long as they show cause and commitment to their profession.

“I call upon Engineers to desist from corruption tendencies, while competing for contacts to carry out construction works. You should aim at providing quality public infrastructure”, he quoted President Museveni’s speech in part.

The head of Construction Economics at Makerere University, Prof A.G Kerali, called upon government to levy a tax on Nile waters, which flow to other upstream countries, to generate revenue for the country instead of taxing mobile money.

“River Nile is a natural resource for Uganda and should not be given out free of charge to develop other countries”, he said.

He further encouraged government to make use of the available uranium mineral resource to generate energy, instead of relying on hydro electricity, which developed countries no longer use.

“One Kg of Uranium can generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity and can serve Uganda for 500 years”, he said.

He added that the planning sectors in the country need to put regulations and commit themselves, in planning industrial parks, which do not jeopardise River Nile.

The Forum was attended by representatives from Egypt, Tanzania, Zanzibar, East Africa Community (EAC), DR Congo, IMC-UK and Lake Victoria Basin Commission among others.