Crown Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior, has directed the Saudi Engineers Commission to investigate the improper implementation of a number of government projects. The commission is seeking to sign a memorandum of understanding with the National Anti-Corruption Commission to prevent corruption in mega projects. The revelation was made at the contract signing for the SR70 million construction of the commission's building, which will be built with support from the Binladen Group. The Saudi Engineers Commission also revealed that it has refused to register over 5,600 expatriates and demanded that they change their professions because they do not hold engineering degrees. “We registered 80,000 engineers of 82 nationalities and we discovered 570 forged degrees, which were referred to the authorities concerned. The majority of those found to be holding fake degrees came from Southeast Asia,” a spokesman said. Abdullah Bugshan, chairman of the group, said the commission reached an agreement with an international company to examine the degrees. About 44,000 degrees have already been checked. He also pointed out that the Board of Directors has approved the Saudi Engineering Arbitration Center, which will be launched in the coming few months. “We have benefited from international experience and regulations to form the center. There are 140,000 expatriate and 30,000 Saudi engineers. The Kingdom needs double the number compared to the population and the number of projects.” Saud Al-Ahmadi, deputy chairman, said the commission has completed the engineers' cadre, which has been referred for royal approval. “The regulation for practicing professions is still being studied in the Shoura Council. It stipulates that an engineer cannot practice his profession except with the grade he has been registered. It also specifies the conditions for vocational registration and the penalties for violation of these regulations,” he said. Al-Ahmadi added that a committee has been formed to look into violations and specify the penalties. He also said that the commission has established a fund for engineers and provides many services to engineers, including expansion of their work in projects and discounts in travel, hotels, hospitals and medical insurance. __
