By Hala Al-Qahtani
Al-Watan
A LONG time ago, a ministerial committee comprising representatives from the Ministries of Civil Service, Finance, Education, Defense, Municipal and Rural Affairs and the Saudi Council of Engineers was formed to set out rules and regulations to strengthen the country’s engineering sector.
The move was aimed at improving the quality of engineers, prepare a foolproof system to recruit and approve engineering professionals on the basis of educational qualifications and experience, and bolster the position of Saudi engineers after providing them with necessary training.
After preparing the project, the committee presented it to the Civil Service Bureau about 14 years ago. The project was not approved. It moved from one ministry to another and from one committee to another without any concrete action.
Four years after the formation of the Civil Service Bureau in 1420 AH, the issue of engineering profession was raised again. In 1432, then Civil Service Minister Mohammed Al-Fayez told a group of engineers that the project would be approved within 45 days. After a year, Al-Fayez left the ministry and his promise remained unfulfilled.
I believe that the endorsement of a law governing appointment of engineers would have solved many questions. It would have not only helped the Kingdom to have enough qualified Saudi engineers but also various agencies to carry out projects in a more effective manner while providing opportunities for our engineers to achieve continuous progress.
Everybody knows that such a law would have saved the government a lot of money, reducing the dependence on foreign engineering consultancy houses to implement projects. We have seen the implementation giant projects in the Kingdom requiring recruitment of a large number of foreign engineers, often without checking the genuineness of their qualifications.
We have realized that the absence of such a law has depressed government engineers and encouraged many of them seek jobs in the private sector. It also opened the door for the recruitment of thousands of foreign engineers, who have been earning high salaries and benefits, thus resulting in a foreign exchange drain.
The management of giant projects by unqualified foreign engineers having fake degrees has affected national development and resulted in the disruption of major development projects across the country, especially infrastructure projects.
The Saudi Council of Engineers has been campaigning for the law for the past several years. During the last session of the council it pressed for the endorsement of the law by higher authorities. As a result, the experts committee in the Cabinet presented a draft bill to the Council of Ministers.
In May 2016, the Cabinet committee signed on the draft law in preparation to present it to the Cabinet secretariat and then to the Cabinet. Since then we have not heard anything about it.
Recent press reports showing the presence of some 6,000 jobless Saudi engineers make us wonder why this happens in a country that employs more than 213,000 foreign engineers.
The proposed law will not only benefit the unemployed engineers but also improve the quality of engineering profession in the country. It will also help attract highly qualified Saudi engineers who seek excellent work environments and attractive benefits.
It will also help organize the public engineering sector, protect rights of Saudi engineers and put an end to the move to marginalize them without providing leadership roles in government projects.
I would like to commend the Interior Ministry’s move to link the issuance and renewal of resident permits (iqamas) of engineers and technicians to the Saudi Council of Engineers to discover whether they are genuine or not, and whether they pose any danger to national projects.
I believe that the council should be given more executive powers to ensure high quality in the engineering sector and set out standards to practice and develop the profession in tune with the Kingdom’s national transformation program.
Measures should also be taken to appoint a specific percentage of Saudi engineers in the public and private sectors. The council should work to realize justice and equality between Saudi and foreign engineers in terms of salary and benefits.
It’s unfortunate that the Labor and Social Development Ministry has not done anything to find jobs for the unemployed Saudi engineers while striving incessantly to Saudize the mobile phone sector. It should have given priority for the employment of these engineers.
