The Saudi Council of Engineers (SCE) recently claimed to have uncovered over 1,866 forged engineering degrees, a member of the supervisory committee of the SCE in the Eastern Region told local media.

In order to curb this disturbing phenomena, that puts lives at risk, the SCE believes that its work is more relevant than ever to guarantee the best quality standards and filter any forgers in the country.

However, some regions of the Kingdom suffer a severe shortage of professionals in this field. Saudi engineers in the Kingdom's government sector stands at around 20 percent out of the total 184,000 engineers, SCE member in Ahsa Province, Eng Abdullah al-Maqahwi, was quoted as saying by local media recently.

Al-Maqahwi, who was addressing a forum in Ahsa, claimed the engineering sector was facing a series of challenges including a severe lack of incentives for Saudi engineers to work in the government sector.

He cited other challenges such as inadequacy of experienced Saudi engineers in a number of sectors and lack of regulations obliging Saudi engineers to join SCE.

According to Al-Maqahwi, the SCE branch in the province has obtained a plot of land covering an area of 4,140 square meters to host its activities in order to improve the field of engineering in the region.