The Independent State of Papua New Guinea implemented the “Professional Engineers (Registration) (Amendment) Act 2007 (PERA) to:
- provide for the establishment of a Professional Engineers Registration Board; and
- provide for the registration of professional engineers; and
- provide for a Registrar of registered engineers; and
- provide for the regulation and control of the profession of engineering; and
- reserve identifying titles for registered engineers.
The PERA provide information on the specific details on what is covered under the Act and also penalties on engineers or organizations that employ engineers if a requirement is not fulfilled.
Below are some points on the PERA worth noting:
A person who is carrying out functions (work) related to or involved with Engineering MUST be registered with the Professional Engineers Registration Board(PERB) as prescribed by the Professional Engineers Registration (Amendment) Act 2007. Part V of the Act defines who should be registered and also prescribes the penalties that will be applied to both the Engineer and the Employer of the Engineer who is NOT registered and is involved in engineering related activities.
PART V.—REGULATION OF THE PRACTICE OF ENGINEERING.
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Employment of Registered Engineers
(1) Any person, Company, Statutory Body, Government Body or Organisation that undertakes or employs others to undertake professional engineering studies and works (includes design work, investigations and other works carried out offshore, where the total project value is in excess of K200,000.00) shall employ registered engineers for the engineering management, design and implementation of these works.
(1A) All drawings and documentations for the construction of works approved under Subsection (1) shall be approved and signed by a registered engineer.
(2) A person who fails to employ registered engineers in accordance with Subsection (1), is guilty of an offence.
Penalty: A fine not exceeding K200,000.00 or up to the full value of the commission, fee, profit margin, etc., whichever is the greater.
(3) A provisionally registered engineer may be employed under Subsection (1) provided he is under the full time direction of a registered engineer who accepts responsibility for the engineering work of the provisionally registered engineer.
- Unregistered persons using reserved titles.
A person other than a registered engineer who uses any of the prescribed identifying titles or abbreviations for registered engineer or implies by any other name, style, title, addition or description, whether in itself or the circumstances in which it is used, that such person is a registered engineer, is guilty of an offence.
Penalty: A fine not exceeding K5,000.00.
- Unregistered persons signing documents.
A person who is unregistered, but who claims to be registered, or who signs engineering documents as though he is registered, is guilty of an offence.
Penalty: A fine not exceeding K5,000.00.
- Penalty for employing an unregistered person.
A person, Company, Statutory Body, Government Body or Organisation who employs an unregistered person as a registered engineer knowing him to be unregistered, is guilty of an offence.
Penalty: A fine not exceeding K10,000.00.
- Board may direct prosecutions.
The Board may order the Institution, either generally or in any particular case, proceedings to be taken for the recovery of penalties and for the prosecution of any persons, Company, Statutory Body, Government Body or Organisation offending against this Act.
- Power to summon witnesses.
(1) The Board may summon witnesses to appear before it to give evidence and produce documents.
(2) A summons to a witness:—
(a) shall be in the prescribed form; and
(b) shall be in writing and signed by the Chairman or the Deputy Chairman; and
(c) may be served on the witness either personally or by being left at or sent by post to his usual place of business or of abode.
- Power to examine on oath.
A member of the Board may administer an oath to a person appearing as a witness before the Board, whether the witness has been summoned or appears without being summoned, and the witness may be examined on oath.
- Failure to attend or produce documents.
(1) A person served with a summon to attend before the Board who refuses or fails, without reasonable excuse, to attend before the Board, or to produce the books, documents or writings in his custody or control that he is required by the summons to produce, is guilty of an offence.
Penalty: A fine not exceeding K400.00.
Default Penalty: A fine not exceeding K40.00.
(2) It is a defence to a prosecution under Subsection (1) that the books, documents or writings requested by the Board were not relevant to the matter, the subject, of the Board's proceedings.
- Refusal to be sworn or give evidence.
A person appearing as a witness before the Board who refuses to be sworn or to make an affirmation, or to answer a question relevant to the proceedings put to him by a member of the Board, is guilty of an offence.
Penalty: A fine not exceeding K 200.00.
- Regulations.
The Head of State, acting on advice, may make regulations, not inconsistent with this Act, prescribing all matters that by this Act are required or permitted to be prescribed, or that are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act, and in particular for prescribing matters providing for and in relation to any other matters relevant to this Act.
