Hiring foreign companies without approval a crime
MBABANE – Any person who awards work to foreign companies without approval of the Construction Industry Council (CIC) shall be liable to a penalty on conviction.
This was said by Nhlanhla Dlamini, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CIC, in response to the petition that was delivered last week by the Association of Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Contractors.
The association raised concerns about unfair competition from foreign contractors who were dominating their industry.
Dlamini said the council currently did not issue administrative fines, however, as provided for in Section 40(3) of the CIC Act, a person who awarded work to a foreign company without approval from the council committed an offence and would be liable on conviction to a penalty not exceeding 10 per cent of the gross estimated value of the project or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years or both.
Criminalised
He said the Act criminalised the breach of Section 40(3) and the council could take legal action against companies.
In order to protect Eswatini, the CEO said it was important that work permits were not issued out where skills were readily available in the country.
“The approval of the council’s regulations is key as this is the regulatory tool that will give the council authority to protect our industry from foreign companies participating in the kingdom,” he said.
Dlamini said the presence of foreign contractors in the industry had been caused by the lack of compliance by project owners, who despite being aware of the provisions of the CIC Act, awarded work to foreign contractors without the approval of the council.
“Necessary steps will be taken to address the lack of compliance. Another challenge has been the lack of the CIC regulations which the council continues to work tirelessly towards getting Parliament’s approval,” he said.
The CEO further mentioned that notwithstanding the efforts that had been made by government, a number of limiting factors had hindered their efforts in ensuring that local skills were protected. He said in an effort to deal with those challenges, strides had been made to date wherein government through the Training and Localising Committee, had engaged the council for advice on a number of key issues in relation to the issuance of permits to foreign contractors.
He said it was worth noting that the CIC was unable to regulate foreign contractors to work in the country alone hence there was a need for collaboration efforts with all stakeholders involved to ensure that they protected companies in Eswatini.
He said this included the non-issuance of work permits to skills available in Eswatini as a way of protecting local businesses.
Proposal
“A proposal has been made by the council to have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in place with the Training and Localisation Committee to address the issuance of work permits to the industry. The finalisation of the MoU is still in progress,” he said.
According to Dlamini, if the foreign companies were in breach of the CIC Act, they would not be allowed to continue undertaking work in the country. However, at the same time, Dlamini said the council did not have the authority to evict someone working in the country who had been granted a work permit.
“The council shall be inviting the project owners, mostly supermarkets and other retails shops and main contractors to a sensitisation workshop wherein the council compliance expectations will be shared,” said Dlamini.