By Patricia Keamo, EMTV News, Port Moresby
The Institution of Engineers Papua New Guinea has implemented a new assessment system that enables professional engineers to register in order to perform engineering work in the country.
Effective as of today (March 6, 2019), IEPNG will penalize all engineers who are not registered under the Competency-Based Assessment System, as well as the organizations who employ them.
CEO of IEPNG Benedict Mick says awareness on this system was made since 2012 and professional engineers should already be aware of this.
As a way of ensuring that engineers are not only qualified but are also competent, IEPNG has been working on the Competency-Based Assessment system since 2009.
CBA is a process that every professional engineer must use and register in order to perform engineering works as required in Section 23 of the Profession Engineers Registration Act (2007).
With the system implemented at the beginning of this year, the industry regulator is now calling on engineers in the country to adhere to the CBA process or face penalties.
IEPNG CEO Benedict Mick says the institution’s concern is to ensure engineers are competent and are able to design and build infrastructures that are durable and safe for use.
According to IEPNG statistics, about 1061 individuals and engineering organizations are registered to practice engineering works – from this number; only 150 are Papua New Guineans.
The grace period for registration ended on the 28th of last month (February).
The IEPNG CEO says for individuals or organizations that are unregistered and still doing engineering work, they are breaking the law and will be penalized.
He says for those unregistered engineers who are performing engineering work and organizations that are employing unregistered engineers, IEPNG will issue a 14-day cause notice starting today (6 March 2019). If there is no response then a letter of demand and invoice for penalty fees follows. The last resort is for IEPNG to take legal action.
This does not only apply to Papua New Guinean engineers – but it also applies to expatriates and engineers working in PNG.
