AS part of current global reform in the construction industry that encourages best practices in the engineering profession, members of the consulting engineers have announced plans to revise its new scale of fees.

The engineers under the Association of Consulting Engineers, Nigeria (ACEN) have also stepped in to ensure their clients pay debts owed members running into billions of naira. The association revealed that two firms have been engaged in Lagos and Abuja to assist members seek legal redress against debtors.

ACEN President, Dr. Temilola Kehinde who made the disclosure in press conference on ‘The State of Consulting Engineering in Nigeria’ said that the newly introduced time- based professional fees structure, which is expected to replace the Federal government scale of fees is being reviewed with more benefits accruing to practicing engineering consultants.

Controversies concerning remunerations and fees charged for engineering consultancy services in Nigeria have been a major cause for concern over the years. Series of discussions were held by professionals in the built Industry to develop a harmonised scale of fees. This was submitted by ACEN and the Nigerian Society of Engineers to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) for approval and adoption.

The existing Engineering Consultancy and Project Management Services, Agreement, Charges and Condition of Engagement (ECOPACCE) was approved in March last year and became enforceable on all professional engineering consultants and projects management service providers in the public and private sectors.

ECOPACCE   allows for the application of time charges on for an hourly basis. The Scale of fee includes a model Client / Consultant Services Agreement prepared by COREN and recommended for use for general purposes of pre-investment and feasibility studies, designs and administration of construction and project management, where proposals for such services are invited on an international or domestic basis.

Specifically, ACEN President explained that the proposed review would incorporate daily, weekly, hourly and monthly scale of fees suitable for different kinds of projects. “We have found out that a lot of projects are not in hours, they are in months, days, weeks and years. As a matter of fact, it is cheaper in some instances to charge per month rather than per hour. In the new review, we will have different scales instead of one scale that charges in hourly with provision for discounting based on volumes,” he said.

Kehinde said that the main challenges which had confronted the consulting engineering sub sector had been the issues of paucity of opportunities for local consultants to get meaningfully involved in local engineering projects, lack of regular and steady payments for fees when the those few opportunity become available.

His words: “These have made the growth of that sector minimal and unsteady. Additionally, firms who operate in engineering consultancy cannot grow to the sizes, which will make competition effective. Our firms therefore remain small and they are unable to invest in and acquire the resources necessary to enhance their competitiveness such as licensed softwares and equipment, and competent full time staff.”

On the issue of taking clients to court, he stated that though some members are not well disposed to toe the line, but the association is going ahead with it to ensure that practice of consulting engineering does not go extinct.  He said some members are engaging in other businesses to make ends meet, adding that their members cannot continue to be in business, if they are not regularly paid for their services.

He said that the association intends to make a difference in new opportunities in oil and gas, public private partnerships, and new infrastructure gap projects.  A recent study on the structure of the engineering industry in Nigeria, he said shows that the association needs to open up better business liaison with the local, state governments, where abundant opportunities exist.

According to him, members appear to be relying more on business opportunities with the federal government agencies and neglecting opportunities in state governments. “Such opportunities are being realized mostly by unregistered foreign consultants, who operate largely in violation of COREN laws, which prohibit illegal practice in Nigeria by unregistered engineering consultancy firms.”