One serious problem the 921 earthquake has exposed in the construction sector is the rampant practice of loaning engineers' licenses.
Many lives could have been saved during the earthquake if it wasn't for this practice, government officials and engineers said yesterday.
"Eighty percent of those who died in the quake could have been saved if structural resistance regulations had been undertaken by properly-trained engineers," said Tsai Lung-ken (
According to government regulations, construction companies should hire licensed civil and structural engineers and architects as full time employees to work on construction sites.
To cut costs, however, many construction companies borrow licenses from engineers instead of hiring them full time.
In the end, construction work is not done with qualified engineers on the building site. Instead, they simply lend their names to certify that structures conform to regulations, including safety standards.
The practice is so common that officials and leaders in the engineering field attending a panel discussion organized by KMT lawmaker Ting Shou-chung (
Some felt that stronger punishment for breaking the law was one answer.
"The penalty for loaning licenses is too light and should be made heavier," said Wu Cheng-jung (
According to existing laws, licensed engineers are not liable to civil damage claims for lending their licenses.
While subject to discipline, the process could be long and drawn out and thus ineffective, according to a research report published by the Public Construction Commission under the Executive Yuan.
A licensed engineer can, however, face criminal charges of up to three years in prison for endangering the public in the case where a building certified with his license collapses, said Hung Kuang-hsuan, a prosecutor at the Ministry of Justice.
But this is much milder than it sounds.
Most three-year jail terms are considered minor and offenders can usually have the time converted into a fine, he said.
What is needed are more creative measures to put an end to the practice, an engineering professor said.
"All construction projects should be published on the Internet with a listing of all the people who are responsible for the project, including architects, and civil and structural engineers," Hung Ju-chiang, a civil engineering professor at National Taiwan University, said.
Wei Lian (
Key parts and processes of construction sites should be photographed with digital cameras and then filed into a computer database, he said.
Others weren't so sure that additional regulations was the answer.
"The problem is that the regulations are there, but people just don't follow them," said Lien Chi-chun (
"People should ask what's wrong with laws or regulations if people are not following them," he said. "The best way is to take away the requirement that construction firms should hire their own engineers with licenses, and let engineers run their own firms, so that they can verify the construction process independently and objectively. Then both issues of building safety and license-loaning will be solved."
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