By Our Reporters
Eng Micheal Odongo, the Chairman of Uganda Road Fund (URF) has vowed to streamline the process through which one becomes a registered engineer. And it’s his job because the Engineers Registration Board (ERB), which he chairs, is the one mandated to register all the practicing engineers in Uganda and certify them as such. The ERB is created under the Engineers Registration Act of 1969 and its mandate is to regulate engineering practices in Uganda. Registration is one way through which ERB does the regulation function whereby it annually publishes in the gazette a list of engineers licensed to practice in Uganda. Ideally by law, you can only be appointed to serve as say district engineer only and only if you are registered, certified and licensed by ERB. Registration is the only proof that you are licensed to do engineering work, according to Eng Odongo. ERB performs this regulation function in close collaboration with Eng Dr. Dorothy Okello’s Uganda Institute of Professional Engineers (UIPE). You can only commence registration efforts with Odongo’s ERB after enrolling and attaining the UIPE corporate member status. The other eligibility criterion is that you must be a graduate engineer from a recognized University. Eng Odongo says one must also have had exposure to all engineering fields namely; project planning, designing, costing, implementation and monitoring. Anybody who has worked for 4 years after graduation can apply for ERB registration.
MANY ARE FRUSRTRATED;
However, as we recently reported, failing to become certified as registered engineers with ERB approval is one reason many young engineers are lately becoming very frustrated. It’s professionally as frustrating as a lawyer being written off by the Law Council without whose certification one can’t have a PC and practice law. Many engineers are out there going about their business especially in government positions but they remain what technically is called “pupil engineers” because without ERB certification, there is a lot one can’t do. For instance organizations considered lucrative like KCCA, UNRA or even international organizations like WB don’t contract engineers who aren’t certified by ERB. This is the dilemma Eng Odongo recently warned his Ministry of local government counterpart (the PS) Ben Kumumanya about. “The more engineers become qualified and certified by ERB the harder it becomes to retain them. They become very competitive and better paying opportunities await them in UNRA, KCCA, the international organizations and even expatriate jobs in places like Southern Sudan,” Odongo cautioned Kumumanya three weeks ago during a meeting for all District Engineers at Hotel Africana. During that meeting, Dunstan Balaba (the Kabarole CAO who chairs the CAOs’ forum) disclosed that more than 80% of the district engineers are unqualified to hold their positions because they have never qualified for ERB registration which means they aren’t good enough. The recent decision by President Museveni to introduce a scheme called “force account” whereby districts now have road construction equipment and make their own roads as opposed to contracting, has prompted increased scrutiny into guys holding office as district engineers because there is now a lot of supervision work to be done by them. They each have a lot more staff to supervise than ever before in their respective districts. In fact it’s a requirement of the law that for one to be appointed the district engineer, they must be fully qualified which means having ERB certification which is like a testimony to one’s suitability for the job. Indeed Odongo says the new system has increased the need for training to be streamlined. He gives the example of a partnership between his URF, UNRA and Works Ministry to revive the road inspectors’ and overseers’ training program that used to be implemented at Kyambogo but died off when contracting took root. These road overseers and inspectors work under the district engineer who is supposed to be even more qualified. The new system revitalizes the role of district road committees whose operations aren’t going very smoothly, according to Odongo, because district engineers have self-esteem problems and aren’t comfortable addressing members during those meetings that by law must be held quarterly. In fact the district road committee report is what URF bases on to send money for the next quarter to the districts for the maintenance of LG roads that aren’t UNRA’s. Odongo says district engineers should operate very transparently and be interested in having attendance of everybody (that is supposed) to attend these committee meetings. He says once there is transparency, there is no way animosity can exist between the MPs, the district works committees and the district road committees which are the URF contact persons in the districts. Rubanda, Kabale and Kasirivu Atwooki’s Kakumiro are some of the districts that have had this turbulence regarding the roads committee work. In the interest of increased transparency, Eng Odongo says UNRA regional station managers should also be invited to these district road committee meetings. District engineers are responsible for all public roads in the district and must open up and work with everybody, Odongo says.
NOT VERY HARD;
Before giving his own observations during the district engineers’ meeting, Odongo wondered why someone who successfully endures the 4 years of rigorous training in the engineering course at the University can fail to submit and defend a good technical report to convince the ERB assessors that he qualifies for registration. After submitting a written report, an engineer aspiring for registration must appear before a panel of ERB assessors to defend his report and corroborate on contents therein. The technical report simply shows what he has done; the projects he has undertaken and supervised since leaving University. “But many of you appear before us [ERB] and begin quacking like somebody being cross examined in court. You lose your confidence and fail to answer even the easiest questions. I don’t know why engineers these days are the least confident. Some of you begin saying I can answer that question next time and then you begin saying assessor so and so hates me,” Eng Odongo told Kumumanya’s district engineers during the Hotel Africana meeting. He gave the example of Bushenyi/Sheema’s highly experienced Mbonimpa who has been a district engineer for many years but has never passed the ERB interviews to become a registered engineer. Odongo urged district engineers to up their game rather than blaming their failure on biases of individual assessors. “That can even not be possible because you are assessed by a team and not one single assessor. The earlier you catch up the better because this business of demanding assessor so and so should be disqualified won’t work.” He advised that if anyone has serious proof of bias against any assessor they should report to him in confidence, rather than making sweeping statements, and action will be taken. He ran through the ERB membership and concluded these are people of integrity and can’t malice anyone during assessment.
“Just do one thing; be compliant. If they tell you go correct your report, just do that. Don’t take things personal because we don’t want to see frustrated engineers. They aren’t productive in the districts,” Odongo said giving example of a very egocentric district engineer that recently went native and started abusing his mentor engineer and the URF Chairman’s office had to get involved to reconcile the two. “Sometimes its attitude it’s the ego of thinking you are very successful as a district engineer because you work with tycoon so and so to cut deals in your district.” Relying on what he has gathered over the years, Odongo offered to speculate on why the district engineers are failing the ERB assessment more than any other applicant category. “I think these are some of the reasons why you aren’t qualifying. Some of you haven’t been properly mentored by senior engineers; some have been sucked into fights between CAO and LC5 chairman, some have not been exposed to serious work in their districts to be able to participate and write a report. Some are concentrating on chasing deals and they aren’t practicing engineering work making it impossible to have something to base on to write technical reports for consideration by ERB,” he said as many in the audience murmured as if to corroborate his observation. “All those are for nothing. You must concentrate on qualifying for registration because even when you are to move on, experience is required. And in our case as engineers, it’s only the post-registration experience that counts. That is why my friend Mbonimpa over there who has been district engineer for many years remains a pupil engineer with no experience to write home about,” Eng Odongo said recalling how being a registered engineer eased his bid to become the Chairman URF in 2009. He previously worked with Works Ministry. He emphasized that getting ERB registration is inescapable because it’s consistent with the National Development Plan (NDP II) which requires Ugandan engineers to become more skilled and competitive.
ODONGO SORTING OUT THE PROBLEM;
But speaking on Friday at the same Hotel Africana where he witnessed the change of UIPE leadership from Eng Dr. Dorothy Okello to Eng Vincent Ochwo Olie, Eng Micheal Odongo sounded unexpectedly hard on the assessors as well. Unlike three weeks earlier when the audience was district engineers, this time round he was addressing dully enrolled members of the UIPE many of whom are already registered with ERB. But still the issue of many more engineers failing to pass ERB assessment came up and gratefully some of the assessors were present. Eng Odonga once again offered to address the issue in his submission during the plenary session. Vowing to sort out the problem once and for all, Odongo warned assessors against “frustrating young people” seeking to become ERB certified engineers. He said he wouldn’t tolerate assessors who rate applicants’ technical reports in a conservative manner aimed at keeping the engineering profession as an “exclusive club of the chosen few.” He said that the assessors and other experienced engineers have a duty to mentor young ones and teach them how to write excellent technical reports meeting the standards the ERB expects when considering those that are fit for certification. Odongo said he was reluctant to believe reports he has been hearing that some assessors just award marks without sufficiently reading through applicants’ technical reports. He repeated the CAA experience he shared with district engineers weeks earlier. He told UIPE members that it’s not only district engineers that are becoming frustrated with the way assessors mark their technical reports tendered as part of the registration process but many other engineers in government MDAs are equally frustrated. He referred to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) where he was sometime back invited to address a crisis meeting of CAA engineers who have become very frustrated and given up ever getting accredited by ERB. “I was shocked; the matter is becoming serious and personal. Some of the CAA engineers started saying you see chairman for me I will never qualify to pass your [ERB] interviews to become a certified engineer as long as so and so is a member of the assessors’ panel. Some were saying that man hates me because we collided over a woman and he always fails me maliciously,” Eng Odongo said quoting CAA engineers. He urged incoming UIPE President Vincent Ochwo to carry on with Dorothy Okello’s resolve to prioritize the joint assessment committee comprising of both ERB and UIPE representatives. “This joint committee is at the heart of registration and I thank Eng Dorothy Okello for prioritizing it as UIPE president.” He insisted the issue of registration was something the entire engineering fraternity should work on because failure to become certified was eroding many engineers’ self-esteem and confidence. “I’m here to report to you feedback I’m getting from out there. People in government are saying there is a problem with engineers. They are docile; they are incompetent and lack confidence. This is what they are saying about us and that is how engineering is being belittled and demystified yet we have to be visible in the public sphere. They are saying that projects that are run by engineers have double costs and very poor quality,” Odongo said calling for peer review amongst engineers so that the bad apples can internally be criticized. He reminded his audience about the ongoing engineers census spearheaded by ERB and urged them to participate. He also urged engineers to use the upcoming September 2018 engineers’ forum to present excellent papers showing how engineers can harness the sustainable use of the River Nile water resource. He also challenged the senior engineers serving as ERB assessors to develop the spirit of volunteerism and prepare to mentor younger ones without expecting pay. He added that even participation in assessment should be a voluntary activity through which successful engineers can pay back to society. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
