By ABAH SUNDAY, Abuja
The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeri (COREN) has approved the establishment of an Engineering Intelligence, Surveillance, and Enforcement (EISE) Task Force in each of the six geopolitical zones and Lagos State.
According to a statement signed by the Registrar, Prof. Adisa, Ademola Bello, the approval was part of the resolutions of the Council at its 181st Ordinary Meeting held recently.
The taskforce was charged with
establishing policy for selecting and engaging persons for intelligence information gathering and whistle blowing; generating intelligence information on the establishment and operations of Engineering Practitioners (Individuals and Firms); developing and standardising Checklist for monitoring and enforcement of engineering regulations, etc.
COREN has also approved the creation of a steering committee in each of the zones to serve as a vital coordinating body tasked with harmonising the efforts and initiatives of regional and state offices of COREN, which would comprise a COREN Council Member, Past President or Past Registrar residing in the zone or states as Chairman.
Council also approved the restructuring of some and establishment of:
Nine (9) Council Standing Committees (CSCs); six (6) Technical sub-committees responsible to some of the CSCs; ten (10) sectoral teams each for Codes and Standards Committee and ERM&E Committee, respectively.
*SUMMIT POST* recalls that in pursuit of its statutory mandate, COREN at the end of its 179th Ordinary Council meeting made public the accreditation status of institutions running engineering programmes without approval from COREN and others with failed accreditation, with a deadline to comply, while underscoring the effect of accreditation on engineering graduates from such institutions,
COREN in the statement noted that while some of the institutions rectified their accreditation anomalies and are now running approved engineering programmes, others have failed to do so, even after they had been written officially in that regard.
The hitherto defaulting institutions according to COREN include Modibbo Adama University Yola, Adamawa State, with failed and expired accreditation cases in its various engineering programmes, and University of Calabar, Cross Rivers State, which is alleged to be currently running engineering programmes up to 300 level without resource verification/pre-accreditation by COREN.
“COREN is hereby notifying the affected Universities to rectify the abnormalities and get the programmes accredited before the commencement of the next academic session.
“Failure to rectify their non-accreditation status will result in blacklisting them as non-accredited institutions whose graduates of engineering programmes will not be recognised for registration as engineering practitioners and will lack the legal backing to practise engineering in Nigeria,” COREN said.
It also urged engineering practitioners to obtain their Annual Practicing License (APL) for 2024 in order in compliance with the Law Regulating Engineering Practice in country or risk the consequences.