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Criminal Charges Against Tanjung Bungah's Consultant Engineer

A case of slope failure which occurred in Tanjung Bungah, Pulau Pinang was Engineers' worst nightmare especially if it involves the death of civilians.

The Principle Engineer of a Civil & Structural Consulting firm which I decline to name committed of nearly 15 negligent acts, attributed to the slope failure.

I'm particularly more interested as to why an experienced professional engineer commit to such gross negligence.

Circular No. 004, Supervision of Construction Works, Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) clearly reinforces the need of qualified person (Professional Engineers with Practicing Certificate) or any person duly authorised by him undertakes the supervision of works.

Meanwhile, the temporary works which are mainly contractor's responsibility shall be given similar due respect as to the design of permanent works by Professional Engineers. This is stipulated in Guideline No. 001: The Role and Responsibility of Professional Engineers for Temporary Works During Construction Stage, BEM.

The probable cause of the engineer's gross negligence is the cost. Private sector pays an extremely low fees compared to government counterpart. Fierce competition among the consultants may not provide them a choice and this will be exploited by the clients to obtain the lowest quotation.

To have an experienced engineers on behalf of the consultants on site would require them to fork out at least RM5,000-8,000 per month. To cut cost ,hiring less experienced engineers or worst assistant engineers will do the trick.

A well-trained engineers can pick up any indicative of distress signs and would propose a temporary halt to ongoing works and re-analyse the slope for better assessment.

In the event when a consultant do not have the expertise in geotechnical engineering, they should propose to client to hire an experienced geotechnical engineer to review the existing conditions, proposing an installation of geotechnical monitoring instrument and to determine the best path forward. Sadly, this move subjects to clients' approval and likely to be dismissed by small developers. Attempts of any physical stabilisation without knowing the extent of the problems will create another issues and greater degree of uncertainty as the fixes won't last.

Moving forward, I believe that a reasonable package of consultant fees will minimise the errors and promote a better construction practice.

Ir. Muhammad Azmir Abdul Mutalib
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