THE government has directed the Engineers Registration Board (ERB) to relax the conditions for registration of engineering consulting firms.
Issuing the directive yesterday, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works and Transport, Engineer Aisha Amour (Works), said reducing conditions would enable having many firms to engage in number of government’s projects.
“The conditions to register consulting firms are very difficult for the small ones. I need the ERB to soften the criteria, so that many firms could register because there are many works that need consultants,” she stated.
The permanent secretary was addressing consultants’ consultative meeting held in Dar es Salaam. The meeting was aimed at finding a way forward for transforming the engineering consultancy sub-sector in the country. It involved consulting engineers and different government institutions organised by ERB.
Eng Amour noted that the government makes close follow-ups on the consultants, especially over their participation in the projects.
“Participation of local consultant engineers is still not satisfactory. There are many big projects ongoing but you can’t find local companies independently implement them, they only work under joint venture with foreign companies,” she pointed out.
Adding: “We expect you to grow to the level that you can also secure jobs of implementing big projects within and outside the country.”
At this juncture, Eng Amour tasked the ERB to look at means of developing the small consulting companies and grouping them into clusters.
She argued that President Samia Suluhu Hassan is developing the country’s economy, hence the engineering sector should not drag its feet. So far, ERB has registered 300 local consultant engineers and 230 engineering consulting companies. But, according to the PS, most of them are hardly seen in the projects.
Earlier, Engineer Menye Manga, ERB Chairperson, said the meeting was part of directives from the minister for the portfolio, Professor Makame Mbarawa, who called for the board to find means of increasing performance of engineering consultancy in the country.
Commenting, ERB Registrar, Engineer Bernard Kavishe, said the aim of the meeting was to improve the sub-sector, because the economy was growing. He said they expected to get constructive inputs from the participants of the meeting.
