By Joy Baba
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over the weekend signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) to reduce corrupt practices and eliminate quacks from the engineering profession in order to minimise frequent collapse of buildings and other engineering failure with its attendant socio-economic loss to Nigeria.
Chairman of the commission, Mr. Ekpo Nta, at the signing ceremony in Abuja said the MOU became necessary due to the high level of quacks. It would also stem corrupt practices in engineering practice at the various stages of design, contracting and supervision by registered professionals.
A statement signed by the commission’s resident consultant, Folu Olamiti said Mr Nta called on COREN members to ensure that the activities of its members were adequately regulated and pledged the support of ICPC to ensure that non-engineers “present fake professional documentation or impersonate Engineers while bidding for government contracts”.
He said ICPC would continue to partner with all professional bodies to ensure they enforce professional ethics and closely monitor their members to avoid incidences of corrupt practices.
The ICPC boss cautioned against falsification of annual audited records and tax clearance certificates among members of COREN and the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) and other professional bodies because quite a number of offenders were facing prosecution.
He challenged COREN to come up with system designs that would reduce corruption through good practices and flow charts adding that it was better to prevent corruption than to prosecute.
In his remarks, COREN President Engr. Kashim Ali, attributed the negative perception about the profession to quackery and added that the effective implementation of the MOU would reduce the menace.
He admitted that COREN was already in partnership with the Corporate Affairs Commission to ensure that quacks were denied registration as engineers.
