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Monday, July 6, 2009

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Engineers react to board selection process By VERNON CLEMENT JONES ~ Guardian Business Editor ~ vernon@nasguard.com: Immediate past-president for the one of the country's rival engineering associations "trusts" they'll have input in staffing a regulatory board. That's notwithstanding the government's announcement Wednesday it will make all seven board appointments itself. "The government has lived up to what it said it would do," Cyprian Gibson of the Bahamas Society of Engineers, told Guardian Business Wednesday. "It said we'd see movement on the engineering act after the budget and we have. "As for the appointment of the board, I trust the associations will be consulted in the process." On Wednesday, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham made no such pledge, in the House announcing his government will now move to re-activate a defunct Professional Engineers Board by directly appointing all seven of its members. That body is key to getting draft regulations for the act governing the industry completed then ratified. The legislative framework was in fact passed way back in 2004 and actually confers upon that same board responsibility for licensing, policing and, where the need arises, penalizing professional engineers in this jurisdiction. The previous incarnation of the board was officially disbanded more than a year ago, its term having expired without key amendments being passed and the regulatory body being enfranchised. The ball appears to be back in play, Gibson said, referring to the government's move Wednesday to appoint a new board. The PM suggested the government's decision to act as final selector was forced by the disparate views of industry players. We had hoped for consensus on the part of the engineers as to who should sit on the board, said Ingraham, asserting that compromise has been elusive. Many industry veterans had hoped to limit the government's role in the selection process, suggesting as little as three of the seats should be filled with political appointees. Responsibility for the remaining four would have been split between the two competing — rather, rival — associations. Their desire was to ensure the regulations best meet industry needs, at the same time hold government at arms length. Still, Gibson is quick to point out that both organizations furnished the government with a respective list of nominees earlier this year. On Wednesday, the PM also said his government-appointed board would serve only a year, the administration then handing the reins to the engineers. That may not satisfy everyone, however. "The government's board will get to make all the really key and significant decisions that (effectively) decide how the industry will govern itself," said one engineer, working for government and speaking on condition of anonymity. "Any board after that is only empowered to do what the government board has already set out." But the benefits of a fully functioning, self-regulatory regime in this country will accrue to all engineers, argued the current president of the BSE in an interview with Guardian Business in May 2008. "Right now our members get only about five percent of the work associated with foreign investment and resort development in this country," Jerome Elliott said. "Regulatory oversight is what other jurisdictions have and it would offer developers a measure of confidence and legal recourse in deciding to go with a Bahamian engineer instead of a foreign firm." That may be wishful thinking, argue other professionals, pointing to the number of contracts Bahamians don't hear about until after they've been handed to international competitors. Any new regulations are, however, expected to ramp up registration requirements for foreign professionals looking to work in this small but lucrative market. Thursday, June 25, 2009