The government and the Saudi Council of Engineers have agreed that only foreign engineers with experience of over four years will be given work permits.
Ghazi Al-Abbasi, secretary-general of the Saudi Council of Engineers, said that experience is calculated from the day an engineer graduates.
He told a local newspaper that a large number of newly graduated engineers were admitted to the job market in the Kingdom. “This has made the Kingdom the biggest center for paid training courses.”
Al-Abbasi said a system, which links the Ministry of Labor, the Passport Department and the National Information Center, is aimed at scrutinizing the residence permits of foreign engineers.
“We have already detected 1,200 cases of forgery. About 18,000 employees working in the engineering sector could not substantiate their certificates and were forced to amend their professions accordingly. This has no doubt had a negative effect on the projects being implemented,” said Al-Abbasi.
Certain stakeholders, such as the Civil Service and finance ministries, are in need of engineering staff.
“The Minister of Civil Service and the Secretary of the Council are both keen on adopting members of the engineering cadre,” adding that they are now in the process of filling the gaps in the system.
Meanwhile, major companies such as Saudi Aramco and SABIC are offering high salaries, which will have an effect on the success of projects.
Al-Abbasi described projects in the Kingdom as being in “intensive care.”
“We have national projects worth SR400 billion on our hands, the bulk of which have already been abandoned.”
He said such projects could not be implemented to proper specifications without competent and efficient engineers.
“Once engineers with forged certificates are caught out, an official letter is sent to judicial bodies for further procedures.”
The council wants fraudsters to be severely punished, he said.
Al-Abbasi said that an engineer accreditation process is in place to monitor the quality of an engineer’s work and his professional permits. “It is difficult to review all the projects that have been implemented.”
He revealed that a project to review and scrutinize architectural plans (blueprints) is being developed because Saudi Arabia is the only country that does not have such an initiative.
“The current engineering plans specify the structural layouts of the building to acquire construction permits. The planned project will look into all the engineering plans or blueprints in detail, including dimensions, materials, layouts, installation methods and techniques.”
He said a conference would be held in December to discuss ways of monitoring engineering plans. “The low fees imposed on architectural designs have contributed to the delay and distress of a number of projects,” he said.
Al-Abbasi said there are 5,556 engineers working in the public sector, with 30,000 engineers at major companies such as Aramco and SABIC.
“There are more than 4,000 engineering offices in the Kingdom owned by Saudi engineers, with no less than 175,000 engineers, of which only 135,000 are Saudi.”
He said there was an urgent need to encourage young Saudis to study engineering. “Saudis account for only 20 percent of development projects,” he said.
Foreign engineers need four years of experience to work
