January 18: Engineers from across the country met with the officials of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) on Monday to look at the constraints faced by district engineers and come up with recommendations to be put up to the concerned authorities.

The meeting proposed that a junior engineer should not be given more than five construction sites at a time. This follows concerns raised by the District Engineers that they are required to supervise more than 30 construction sites at a time due to shortage of engineers. This they said results in poor work quality.

The meeting recommended that District Engineers will not be assigned any construction site since they have to coordinate all the projects of the Dzongkhag and the projects of other central agencies.

A need to conduct job orientation program for fresh engineers prior to their postings to the dzongkhag was proposed.

Engineers said currently fresh engineers are made to take up the project implementation responsibility soon after they are posted to the dzongkhags. This, they said results in procedural lapses.

Engineers also pointed out that inadequate travel budget limit their mobility to visit construction sites to monitor work quality and progress. The meeting decided that the Works and Human Settlement will request the Finance ministry to sanction adequate travel budget to the dzongkhags.

The meeting also recommended that District Engineers need not certify procurement of goods or works in which they were not involved directly.

District Engineers said they also look after the projects of other central agencies besides planned works of the dzongkhag. But they said it is not reflected in the terms of reference.

It was agreed that the terms of reference for the District Engineers need to be framed reflecting all the activities they carry out in the dzongkhags.