1,365 fake engineering certificates discovered in Saudi Arabia
Dubai-based firm to verify engineering certificates for Saudi Council of Engineers
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The Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE) is working to eliminate phony engineers from its construction market after it found 1,365 fake certificates of engineers employed in Saudi Arabia in the last six months.
185 engineers were banned from taking up jobs after the documents they submitted were found to be counterfeit or issued from unrecognised universities. SCE has hired a Dubai-based company to check the validity of the documents submitted to the council.
“We have plans to refer these forged cases to the Ministry of Interior for necessary action according to local laws,” Professor Ibrahim Al-Hammad, a member of the board of directors of the SCE told local daily Arab News.
Al-Hammad said “some unacceptable documents were also found among Saudi nationals who posed as engineers.” Only 7,610 of the total 35,000 engineers in Saudi Arabia have registered with the SCE so far.
The SCE is working with the country’s Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution to take action against those detected with forged certificates. Using an e-system, the council has also linked itself with the Ministry of Interior to deal with expatriate engineers submitted forged documents.
Ghazi Al-Abbasi, secretary of the SCE said the “situation will soon come to an end with the adoption of a new Practice of Profession code and, upon approval, no Saudi or non-Saudi engineer will be allowed to practice the profession unless he or she gets an SCE card.”
The number of engineering offices registered with the SCE has reached 2,768, Al-Abbasi added.
