30 Jul 2019

 The permanent secretary in the ministry of Infrastructure and Housing Development, Mr Dikagiso Mokotedi has commended the Engineers Registration Board (ERB) for its commitment to continuous learning through the Continuing Professional Development Policy (CPDP).

The policy is aimed at fostering, not only the spirit of self-improvement on the part of engineers, but also mentorship of younger engineers to enhance sustainability, continuity and leadership development.

Officially opening the three-day Engineers Forum 2019, in Gaborone on July 29, Mr Mokotedi pointed out that since its inception, the ERB had made some strides in ensuring registration of engineers to enable proper regulation of the profession across industries. 

He said it was disappointing that there were still many engineers who had not registered and yet were practicing.  “I can only assume that such individuals are either professionally unqualified and would not be able to satisfy the requirements for registration or they are up to something sinister,” he said.

He said such were the people who invariably engaged in underhanded dealings that would not only expose people’s lives to danger but would tarnish the image of the  profession.

Mr Mokotedi further mentioned that he fully welcomed and supported the current exercise to review the Engineers Registration Act to ensure that it gives the regulator sufficient clout to deal with rogue individuals and companies that continue to break the law. 

“Charity must begin at home and you as engineers must lead by example. I am told that about 23 cases of fraud and malpractice within your profession were recorded during the last financial year, 2017/2018,” he said, adding that with effective monitoring and quick action by the regulator they expect such incidences to be reduced. 

He also said he was aware that the ERB had instituted interdict proceedings against 21 staff members in his ministry for practicing engineering, whilst not registered with ERB or not holding valid practicing certificates issued by ERB.

He highlighted that the ministry, could not stand in ERB’s way because it was acting in line with its mandate of protecting the welfare and interest of the public and maintaining high engineering standards.

He therefore urged all those who have not registered to do so, saying out of an estimated 9000 engineers in this country, only about 60 per cent had registered. 

He said that was quite disheartening because it left a lot of people out of the regulatory radar and it also opened the profession to risks of malpractice. 

Mr Mokotedi noted the ERB was going to great lengths to ease the registration process, adding that they would soon introduce online registration, automatic renewals and real time registration. 

Mr Mokotedi pleaded with engineers to take full advantage of such innovation, saying the ministry was in support of the move to register engineering companies and departments to ensure that all comply with set professional standards.

The forum was held under the theme: Fostering Engineering Innovation and Creativity through Effective Partnerships. 

Mr Mokotedi said the three major sub-themes of Innovation and Creativity in Delivery of Engineering Services and Projects, the Role of Engineering Society in Achievement of Sustainable Development and Striking Effective Partnerships amongst Stakeholders were a perfect springboard from which Batswana engineers should derive the energy to play a meaningful part to achieve Botswana’s national vision. 

He said the topics under those sub themes demonstrated a desire to harness every available knowledge resource through multiple stakeholder engagement. 

He further said it was a demonstration of how diverse the engineering field was. 

Meanwhile, Mr Mokotedi also urged the engineering sector to wake up to the fact that it was impossible to continue to work in silos and expect success and let alone sustainability. 

He was of the view that the current scenario in the environment was such that there were multiple players in the market, many of them registered as one person companies, consultants, contractors, adding that ‘no man is an island’.

“We cannot achieve much by continuing to work in isolation, we live in a global world, if we continue to work in isolation, we stand no chance against other global players. In fact, we will remain spectators and mere tools even in our own space,” he stressed.

He said such a scenario had led to a situation where outside players grab all the major projects in front of the locals’ eyes as they act in a manner which was mutually reinforcing and supporting each other. 

He said there was no reason why Batswana engineers should not be involved in projects such as the Morupule power generation, major mining projects that were emerging, the Kazungula Bridge and other envisaged projects under the NDP 11.

He further said there was no reason why local engineers should not be contributing to institutional curricular, research and development, patent generation, saying it was clear that local engineers failed to meaningfully participate in that because they thought hey could do it alone.

He therefore challenged engineers to take inspiration from the forum and solidify partnerships that would yield meaningful results. Mr Mokotedi also urged other partners in the engineering profession to be responsive to the needs of the profession to enable engineers to do their work efficiently. 

He said it was disheartening to learn that in some institutions decisions which should be the responsibility of engineers lie with none professionals. Ends