New engineers board unveiled

PIC: Works minister Azuba with the new engineers board members. (Credit: Abou Kisige)

ENGINEERS | BOARD

KAMPALA - The Minister for Works and Transport, Eng. Monica Azuba, has unveiled the 17th Engineers' Registration Board (ERB).

This was on Wednesday during the inauguration of the new team at the ministry's head office in Kampala.

The board is established by the Engineers Registration Act of 1969 with mandate to regulate and control engineers and their activities and to advise the Government in relation to the same.

The ERB, chaired by Eng. Dr. Michael Odongo, also has Eng. Francis Okinyal as deputy and engineers Andrew Kitaka, Elias Bahanda, Michael Pande, Florence Lubwama, Peter Balimunsi as members. Ronald Namugera is the registrar.

Odongo said Uganda has universities that admit over 400 students in a single engineering classroom, which is not permissible by international standards.

Estimating that the country has 10,000 engineers, Odongo said the 16th ERB was able to increase the number of practitioners registered from 600 in 2015 to over 1,000 to date.

"Beyond registration, you should also make sure we adhere to the professional code of ethics by not being shy to apply punitive measures against the errant," Abuza said.

She added that she was looking forward to the registration of the approved courses as well as sensitising lay people on the need for registered engineers at construction sites so as to mitigate accidents.