'A few corrupt engineers have soiled our profession'

The chairperson of the Engineers Registration Board Eng. Michael Odong has revealed that some engineers are corrupt due to huge desire to immense wealth in a short time, which he says has soiled the entire profession.

He however lamented that in many instances corruption is imposed on engineers especially through the contracts system where they get too much pressure from some circles, something he said many find irresistible yet they do not take any share out of it.

Odong, who is the executive director of the Uganda Road Fund (URF), was speaking at Serena Conference Center where 106 engineers received practicing certificates - the largest number ever to be passed out since 1968.

The engineers also attended an International Technology Conference organized by the Uganda Institute of Professional Engineers, which drew participants from other countries like Nigeria and Kenya.

"It is surprising that someone works for only five years and is driving an Escalade car. Some of us have worked for over 30 years and we have not yet dreamt of having a swimming pool at our homes, but you find one who has just started working is already having a storey house with a swimming pool," he said.

But he was keen to say that some corruption incidents had been exaggerated, branding it professional mistakes rather than out of corruption or in some instances cases of normal occurrences have been interpreted as shoddy work.

"Simple air cracks" on constructed dams that can easily be rectified, for example, had been mistaken for shoddy work by the public, added Odong.

 "Unlike doctors who examine patients from inside their rooms, our works are in the eyes of the public domain and everyone including rumor mongers inspect it all the time and make their own interpretations."

Odong, pictured here handing a certificate to Eng. Zaituni Nakonde, said it was a concern that the profession had very few practising female engineers. (Credit: Eddie Ssejjoba)

The engineer advised fellow engineers who win contracts to do projects to handle the work professionally and follow their code of conduct.

"We must admit that there a few engineers who have been found wanting in terms of credibility, those who put their hands in the public resources and have soiled the name of the entire profession," he said.

Odong faulted the senior professionals for failure to mentor the young recruits fearing that they were a threat who could easily take over their business, but added that they should be able to tell them that 'it does not take five years to build a house in Muyenga'.

To reduce corruption tendencies in the profession, he said the board would put in place strategies to weed out the corrupt by letting everyone sign some documents at registration compelling them to uphold the professional code of conduct, so that they can use it to punish those found defective.   

He also said it is a "national scandal" and a concern to the engineering fraternity that Uganda lacks qualified female professional engineers.

Out of the 106 engineers who received practicing certificates, only 14 were women.

"We see in the national education performances girls beating boys at all levels but where do they disappear? Women are half of our population but we don't have them in our profession," said Odong, adding that the board had failed to recruit a female member because the only candidate was found with no certificate.

The registration board was set up in 1968 but according to Odong, only 613 and the other 205 inactive, with civil engineering taking the lion share of 457, 77 in electrical, 78 mechanical and only one in agricultural engineering.    

Some engineers however complained against the way their colleagues lost jobs in the Uganda National Roads Authority, as well as some leadership roles given to nonprofessionals.