A draft sub-decree establishing an Engineer’s Code of Conduct has entered the final review stage. The code is aimed at enhancing the honour, dignity and responsibility of professional engineers in order to ensure public safety and protect the public interest.
The final review of the draft was chaired by Minister of Labour and Vocational Training Ith Sam Heng on January 11.
“Engineers are an important resource making an essential contribution to the development of Cambodia,” said Sam Heng, who is also chairman of the Board of Engineers of Cambodia (BEC).
He instructed the general-secretariat of the BEC to organize workshops and gather input from all stakeholders and incorporate it into the draft code of conduct. He called on all Cambodian engineers and foreign engineers who are working in Cambodia to register with the BEC to enjoy the benefits provided by the professional association.
“Engineers registered with the BEC are able to access additional vocational training that the BEC organizes through short-term and long-term courses and workshops and they have the legal right to start their own engineering firm after receiving the title of national professional engineer,” he said.
Vuong Ma Sreng, 26, an engineer heading up construction planning for a private sector company, spoke in support of the sub-decree, saying it could help improve the reputation of Cambodian engineers.
“When there is a sub-decree that clearly states what an engineer’s role should be and has mechanisms for professional accountability it will help improve professional ethics here, because some engineers do have bad intentions or deceive their customers.
“That is already unethical, but if it’s also illegal then they might actually respect that and stop doing it,” he said.
He also suggested that the BEC to include mechanisms in the sub-decree for penalizing engineers and revoking their professional licences if they are found to be in violation of the code of conduct.
He said that candidates should first be fined, then suspended or ultimately stripped of their licence by the board of engineers if they violate the conduct code repeatedly or egregiously.
Ma Sreng said he hoped that the sub-decree would help engineers in Cambodia grow to the next level in terms of professionalism and allow them to step onto the international stage and find work abroad more easily as the sector continues to grow.
