PEC subcommittees declared unlawful

on 17/07/2017

GB dissolves all committees;Punjab Building Committee survives!

‘Of 800 members of 74 committees, 85 percent were outsiders’

The governing body (GB) of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) has dissolved all subcommittees but one, formed allegedly in violation of the PEC Act and bylaws. The only committee which remains is Punjab Building Committee.

These committees were shaped by chairman PEC, Jawed Saleem Qureshi without due approval of the governing body, a number of the members of the body told Engineering Review.

The alleged unlawful formation of the committees had created deepening unease in numerous senior members of the council as they believed neither the PEC Act had been followed nor the governing body been taken into confidence.

The council is provided by the article 35 of the PEC Act to form one or more committees for carrying out special business. A senior engineer said although there was no specific number of committees mentioned in the PEC Act, it did not mean the law permitted formation of unlimited or a huge number of committees.

To the surprise of many, the number of subcommittees formed to proceed with special business of the council rose to the all-time high as 74—all formed without ratification of the governing body which solely holds, as per law, the mandate of formation, deletion, extension and abridgement of Committees.

Not only that but also the membership on such committees was so high in number that many engineers alleged it was a loss to public exchequer. An engineer claims the total number of the members of all committees was around 800. More ironical was the fact that, from this lot a high number of engineers on committees, only 15 percent were those who belonged to the governing body. The rest of the members making 85 percent of the total strength were outsiders who allegedly had been closer to the leadership.

Yet another senior engineer requesting anonymity also confirmed such a grave situation in the council. He however differed the ratio on the committees saying GB-related members and outsiders on the council might be 35:65.

Deterioration in the PEC is not a new phenomenon as the management committee—a body of senior engineers who are responsible to oversee the working of the secretariat so that the affairs of the council run as per law—allegedly kept mum and avoided bringing the issues to the notice of the governing body and thus failed to stop unlawful use of authority.

The Committees were formed illegally and the secretariat continued with such proceedings of formations, dissolutions, deletions and extensions of the committees without any lawful authority and the management committee failed to oblige its legitimate role to stop these illegalities at the first step, alleged a senior engineer.

The council is now replete with a question as to who is responsible for such a glaring violation of law which has put burden on council’s resources as well as on national exchequer.

The situation, yet another engineer told ER, has turned so messy that the management committee has not met for over 2 months. Many engineers ask about achievements of the council which is supposed to play a crucial role for development of engineers and engineering in the country. The transparency in appointments of 41 sub-registrars is being questioned amidst whispering as regards groupings on political basis in the council.

200 textile, leather units on verge of collapse

on 16/07/2017

FPCCI, trade bodies demand restoration of EDB

Trade bodies and the chambers, in a national conference held under the banner of FPCCI in Lahore, have demanded restoration of the Engineering Development Board (EDB). They also stressed upon immediate payment of refunds to the industry. Vice President SAARC Chamber Iftikhar Malik said that the number of research centers and laboratories should be increased while there should be strong linkage between industry and the academia. Research is very important for promotion of industries and same should be on industrial requirement. He said there is dire need of skilled manpower as CPEC projects are bringing many job opportunities in the country. He said the United Business Group (UBG) would never ever compromise on the interests of the business community and take their genuine grievances to higher levels. He said that the auto industry and agricultural sector were not showing proper growth. Pakistan’s auto market is considered among the smallest but it is fastest growing in South Asia, demanding the government should follow its own “Auto Policy 2016-21” and offer tax incentives to new automakers for establishing manufacturing plants in the country. He said that the EDB in past played a significant role for promotion of hardware engineering and he wondered why the government dissolved such important department. He demanded to restore the board as soon as possible. Patron-in-chief UBG and former Chief Executive of the Trade Development Authority Pakistan SM Muneer claimed a major chunk of industries especially textile and leather was suffering colossal financial losses and thus needed immediate oxygen otherwise industrial sector would collapse. He said nearly 200 textile and leather units were forced to shut down because of heavy taxation and absence of relief from the government. SM Muneer stressed upon an urgent need for introducing pro-poor, business friendly , export and growth oriented monetary policies to help strengthen national economy on sound footings besides restoring confidence of foreign and local investors. Manzoor-Ul-Haq Malik, Regional Chairman FPCCI, said the elected government should focus on issues of business sector otherwise they would lose their vote bank. He said government should make efforts to bring non-registered tax payers into tax net instead of squeezing already registered tax payers. Tax return system should be simplified. Help desk of Punjab Revenue Authority should be established at each Chamber of District. Discretionary powers given to the Federal Board of Revenue officials should be withdrawn. Business representative should be included as Board of Directors of all Government Institutions, PBIT, TDAP, FBR and NTC. He further stressed on enhancing industrialization, balancing trade, increasing exports. He added double taxation should be discouraged. He said direct taxes should be encouraged instead of indirect tax system. He said Pakistan was at 144th number of ease of doing business ranking of World Bank out of the list of 190 countries which is alarming.

Revival of Manchar Lake receives a blow

on 16/07/2017

 

P&D returns PC-I of NaiGaj Dam to W&P

The Ministry of Planning and Development has returned PC-I of the NaiGaj Dam to the Ministry of Water and Power, as the former wants a commitment from the Sindh government that it will finance environmental component of the project.

The step may affect efforts of reviving the Manchar Lake—the largest lake in Asia. Manchar is supposed to get fresh water supplies from the dam which is the only source of water for the lake. Ministry of planning has asked the ministry of W&P that before the processing of PC-I by CDWP it should provide written commitment from Sindh government for financing environmental component costing Rs5.80 billion.

The NaiGaj Dam project was initially approved by the ECNEC in 2012. Even after a lapse of five years, the CDWP has not revised the PC-I of the project. NaiGaj Dam is being constructed on Gaj River in district Dadu of Sindh with the total cost of Rs.46 billion. The 194-feet high dam will store 300,000 acre feet of water and irrigate 29,000 acres of the land. The project will create employment opportunities numbering around 6,500. The annual benefits of the project have been estimated over Rs3 billion.

Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD) is the major polluter of the lake. It is also one of the causes of quarrel between Sindh and center. This lake cannot be revived until salinities from RBOD are stopped. It is feared that if the RBOD project will not complete on time, the flora and fauna of Manchar Lake will completely be wiped out. However after an agreement reached between  Federal and Sindh governments on RBOD-II funding, it is hoped that the contamination of Manchar Lake will end.

The issue of fresh water supply to the Mancher Lake still persists as the water wing of the planning ministry has returned the PC-I of the NaiGaj project without the approval of the competent authority. Planning experts are of the view that Mancher Lake cannot be revived unless fresh water is supplied from NaiGaj Dam.  Supreme Court has already initiated suomoto proceedings on growing level of contamination in the Lake and deprivation of the livelihood of fishermen. The experts of the planning ministry are of the view that degrading quality of water of Mancher is at an alarming stage and if fresh water is not supplied, it will be a great dilemma for this national asset.

The PC-I of the project was approved by the ECNEC in August 2012 at a rationalized cost of Rs26.24 billion after removing some components of the project on which the Sindh government raised its objections. As it is believed that the environmental requirement of the project could not be addressed until fresh supplies from NaiGaj is not ensured. The implementation of deleted components will increase the project cost by 13 percent (Rs5.80 billion) to the total cost.  The planning ministry also supported Sindh’s stand; though, the cost should be borne out by the province.  The CDWP considered revised PC-I of Rs46.55 billion in March 2016 but it was deferred.

Consultants – Why?

on 14/07/2017

A consultant is one who provides expert professional advice based on his sound knowledge and experience of the subject of his domain. One would find consultants in practically every area of human activity: engineering, medicine, surgery, management, HR, law, education, finance, estate, etc.

The significance of consultants of different trades greatly varies; the medical consultants being in the highest demand. And so are their professional fee. There’s quite an interesting anomaly between medical and engineering consultants in the matter of fee. Whereas everyone would like to go to the best doctor one could afford, when it comes to engaging an engineering consultant, one is tempted to go to the one quoting the lowest fee. In view of the huge and long-term repercussions that may accompany low fee propositions, they are void of any logic and call for a just and pragmatic approach.

A consultant brings wealth of valuable professional experience acquired over time from projects of diversified nature undertaken at various places and under different conditions. This coupled with his knowledge of technologies, good practices, standards, innovative products, etc. enable the consultant to provide tremendous value addition on a project.

Universally, the selection of consultants on engineering projects is merit based. This almost equally applies to projects of all types and magnitude. On medium and large size projects, consultant’s selection takes place on the quality of his technical proposal which, inter alia, includes consultant’s competence, past relevant experience, proposed methodology, proposed team, timelines, etc.

At times, the technical proposal alone decides the consultant’s selection. Alternatively, technical and financial proposals are jointly evaluated, generally giving them weightage of 80 and 20% respectively.

All international and national donor agencies which sponsor projects follow and advocate only merit based selection of consultants. The same practice has been adopted locally for public sector projects. To begin with it was Pakistan Engineering Council which did some pioneering work in this regard and then came the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority [PPRA] which quite effectively enforced the merit based selection. There could be some gray areas or loopholes in the enforcement of system, but the overall objective of merit is achieved to a fair degree. Whether merit based selection leads to quality construction and installation is a different matter. One would find glaring signs of corruption and kickbacks on many projects. As one can imagine, no one can indeed stop a political leader to play with the rules of business.

One would generally expect the private sector to be more quality conscious and thus follow the merit based selection of consultants.  Unfortunately, this is not happening as a standard norm.On the contrary, often there’s totally unjust competition in the sense that well qualified and experienced consultants are equated to those who even don’t have the basic eligibility qualifications as prescribed by PEC. This deplorable situation combined with practically non-existing regulatory compliance is amply reflected by the poor construction and installation depicted at many of our buildings and industries.

Consultancy revolves around trust. A consultant is expected to act as a sincere adviser to the client and his engagement must lead to substantial value addition. Apart from his well-defined functions, the consultant must timely intimate the client of the impacts of any of the latter’s revised requirements, changes, etc. At the same time, the consultant must ensure that the proposed designs, products and systems would best cater to the present and projected needs of the client.

As they bring unparalleled value addition to any project, consultants are essential for the long-term techno-economic success of any project. Their selection must be done with utmost care and without falling into the traps of low fee propositions which could have devastating impacts on the health of projects. [The author is Chief Executive, KPA Consulting and could be reached at halid@kpa.com.pk.]

Flying cars finally being produced

on 06/07/2017

While several futuristic projects are underway in different countries, a Dutch design may be the first one sold and soaring into the skies. After years of testing, the PAL-V company aims to pip its competitors to the post. It is poised to start production on what they bill as a world first: a three-wheeled gyrocopter-type vehicle which can carry two people and will be certified for use on the roads and in the skies.“This kind of dream has been around for 100 years now. When the first airplane was invented people already thought ‘How can I make that drivable on the road?”Chief marketing officer Markus Hess told AFP. The PAL-V (Personal Air and Land Vehicle) firm, based in Raamsdonksveer in the Netherlands, is aiming to deliver its first flying car to its first customer by the end of 2018. The lucky owner will need both a driving licence and a pilot’s licence. But with the keys in hand, the owner will be able to drive to an airfield for the short take-off, and after landing elsewhere drive to the destination in a “door-to-door” experience. Different versions of a flying car are being developed in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Japan, China and the United States. However, final assembly on the PAL-V will start in October, with the company seeking to be the first to go into commercial production.The PAL-V uses normal unleaded petrol for its two 100-horsepower engines, and can fly 400 to 500 kilometres (248 to 310 miles) at an altitude of up to 3,500 metres (11,500 feet). On the road it has a top speed of around 170 kilometres an hour. In 2019, the company expects to produce between 50 and 100 vehicles, before ramping up to “quite a few hundred” in 2020. It won’t be cheap. The first edition, the PAL-V Liberty, costs 499,000 euros ($599,000), while the slightly cheaper PAL-V Liberty Sport, to be made next, has a price tag of 299,000 euros. PAL-V was founded in 2007 by Robert Dingemanse and pilot John Bakker.“In the beginning it was, let’s make a gyrocopter drivable,” said Hess. But the company, which has some 40 to 50 employees, realised the weight and length of a gyrocopter’s blades gave the vehicle a high centre of gravity when driving, especially taking corners.They have designed the car so at the flick of a button the blades fold down and gather like a bat’s wings on the top.And they have incorporated into the car a 2005 breakthrough — when the Dutch company Carver invented a tilting system for three-wheelers — to counter the high centre of gravity and make it roadworthy. The company insists the PAL-V is not a helicopter, in which the blades are powered by an engine. It is a gyroplane, in which the blades rotate thanks to airflow. Even if both engines cut out, the blades will still turn, so “even if you go at zero speed it still keeps rotating and you are not going to drop out of the sky,” said Hess.While he refused to divulge how many orders they have, he said the company “was more than satisfied”.Clients put down a non-refundable deposit of 10,000 to 25,000 euros depending on the model. A third option is to put 2,500 euros into an escrow account, which secures them a place in the line.“In some senses we are selling a dream,” Hess said, standing next to the sleek, black first model developed in 2012 which has already put in “substantial hours” of flying and driving time. Parts are on order, with the first already in stock. Once built, the vehicle will have to complete at least 150 flying hours, and undergo extensive tests to receive its certification from the Cologne-based European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Hess defended the hefty price tag. It’s not a lot more than “a super-duper sports car with a few extras,” he said.“Considering the extra certification standards we have to go through for aviation, and that a super-duper sports car can’t even fly, we think it’s actually a bargain.” The PAL-V staff knows many inventors in other countries also developing flying cars, but remain unconcerned by the competition. Hess laughs when asked whether the skies will become too crowded. People at first “cannot even imagine flying cars. Then suddenly when they start imagining it, they see millions of flying cars in the air.That new reality, for the time being, is still a long way off”, he said.