DOHA: There are some local engineering consultancies that are misusing their licence as they put their official stamps on building papers that are forwarded for the necessary municipal approvals in lieu of merely QR2,000, the Central Municipal Council (CMC) has been told.
The head of a 10-member key inter-ministerial committee which is responsible for licensing engineering consultancy firms told the public representative body (the CMC) on Sunday that such irregularities were posing challenges to its functioning so the law regulating engineering firms needed to be amended to rectify the situation.
Khalid Abdul Rahman Al Assaad told the House that the committee was all for amending law number 19 of 2005 and allow Qatari engineers working in the government sector to practise their profession and have official seals without owning a consultancy office as is the case with some neighbouring GCC countries.
It has been found that in some municipalities some local engineering firms put their official seals on building papers just for QR2,000, Al Assaad said to the shock of CMC members.
According to him, some Qatari engineers working in the government sector have set up engineering consultancies in the names of their wives and sons. To stop such irregularities it is advisable to allow these engineers to practise their profession and own seals (official stamps) without the need to set up paraphernalia like an office, said the committee’s head.
The CMC had invited him for a threadbare debate on the issue of engineering consultancies as public complaints are galore that their fee slabs are exorbitantly high.
Al Assaad told the CMC that currently 35 foreign and 157 local engineering consultancies were operating in the country. While there is no grading for overseas firms, the local ones are grouped into three categories — A, B and C.
The foreign ones as well as the A category of local firms are asked to make a deposit of QR2m, whereas the registration fees for them are QR25,000 and QR15,000, respectively.
For category B and C firms, the deposit amount is QR1m and QR500,000, respectively.
Their registration fees are much less and besides, they are also levied an additional registration fee for different specialisations (road, buildings, sewage, etc).
Licence is granted to foreign firms for three years after which a renewal fee is charged. In the case of local consultancies, the validity of the licence is for two years. The Peninsula
