An estimated 85-90 per cent of the engineering work on major Bahamas-based development projects goes to foreign firms

85-90% export 'guts' engineers
By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor:


An estimated 85-90 per cent of the engineering work on major Bahamas-based development projects goes to foreign firms, the Bahamas Society of Engineers' president telling Tribune Business yesterday that "the wholesale export" of such services "absolutely guts our entire industry".

Robert Reiss, who is also principal of Islands by Design/Reiss, said qualified Bahamian engineers were still being denied the opportunity to fully participate in their profession through the continuing tendency of both local and foreign developers, plus the Government, to look outside this nation on jobs that Bahamians can do.

"One of the key elements of my platform, a key tenet, is the fact that I want the Bahamas Society of Engineers to support the implementation of the Professional Engineers Act and Board and, beyond just the Act, supporting securing and keeping Bahamian engineering jobs for Bahamians," Mr Reiss told Tribune Business.

"For too long and too often, our engineering work in the Bahama goes to foreign firms. It's fine if there's a need for specialist expertise, but there's a wholesale export of our money, our opportunities. The dollars and the opportunities for Bahamian engineers, who have gone abroad to school to get qualified, to participate in our profession get exported. It absolutely guts our entire industry."

Emphasising that "this situation of having Bahamians do Bahamian engineering work is not insular or inward-looking", Mr Reiss said the drive to ensure qualified Bahamian engineers obtained work they were qualified to do would "improve our economic engine" by keeping dollars at home.

Mr Reiss, who has been heavily involved in water and wastewater treatment engineering work in the US and abroad, told Tribune Business: "Even though I'm Bahamian, I see the companies I compete against and beat in foreign locations very smoothly get work off the Government that I even have difficulty in getting shortlisted for.

"I would easily guess that 85-90 per cent of the engineering work on major development projects is done by foreign engineers."

Culprit

Mario Bastian, the Bahamas Society of Engineers' secretary, added that the Government was just as big a culprit as developers when it came to denying Bahamian engineers opportunities on projects they were perfectly qualified to perform.

Local expertise and knowledge would be harnessed on many projects by using Bahamian engineers, Mr Reiss argued, and the passage of the Act and set-up of the Professional Engineers Board, with its registration requirements, is viewed as a tool to aid this goal.

The Act requires foreign engineers to obtain a certificate of temporary registration from the Professional Engineers Board when working in this nation, and also joint venture with Bahamian engineers when working on major projects in this nation.

The Board, and the requirement that Bahamian engineers (and their foreign counterparts) be registered in all the disciplines they perform, will enhance consumer protection by letting Bahamians know exactly what an engineer is qualified to do, plus enable the sector to be self-regulating and put certification standards in place.

Mr Reiss praised developments such as Albany, the National Sports Stadium and the Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) redevelopment for allowing Bahamian engineers to play a key role on those projects.

April 23, 2010


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