Consulting engineers advised to understand their rights

KOTA KINABALU: Consulting engineers in Sabah were advised to understand their rights under the consultancy agreement.

The call was made at a talk delivered by senior consultant engineer Ir Allan Benjamin at a dinner gathering of the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACEM) Sabah Branch on Friday.

Allen pointed out that the purpose of consultancy agreements was to establish the rights and obligations of the consultant and his client.

The terms of the consultancy agreement would clearly set out the scope of both parties’ obligations under the consultancy project to minimise the risk of disputes arising in the future.

“It is therefore essential for consultants to understand their rights under the consultancy agreement,” he said.

Allan shared with the consulting engineers on the various grey areas namely, cost of works, change in design and the like, in the standard consultancy agreement presently adapted by consultants and their clients.

The chairman of ACEM Sabah, Ir Amirul Hisham Ismail in his welcoming speech urged local consultant engineers to join ACEM to help promote the advancement of the profession of consulting engineering by associating together for consultation and cooperation with engineers whose work is of a purely consultative character, and of providing facilities for the government, public bodies, associations representing industry and trade, and others to confer with consulting engineers as a body and to ascertain their collective views.

In elaborating the benefits for consultant engineers for joining ACEM, he said: “The association is a ready medium through which its members can consult with each other on all matters of professional interest, and affords a means by which the procedure of the consulting profession may be coordinated and handed on to those entering its ranks.”

Amirul pointed out that one of the primary objects of the association is to ensure that consulting engineers undertaking to advise on engineering matters should be fully qualified engineers in their respective fields and should act in all professional matters in a strictly fiduciary capacity to their clients.

The association strictly confines its attention to matters affecting the status, professional conduct, emolument and the general interests of those engineers who have adopted consulting work as their profession.

More than 60 consultant engineers attended the dinner.