Hassan Al-Sitri
The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture, Wael Al-Mubarak, issued a decision authorizing the Minister concerned with Municipal Affairs to entrust offices licensed in accordance with Law No. 51 of 2014 regulating the practice of engineering professions to carry out all or some of the work of reviewing applications submitted to obtain licenses for services provided by the municipality, in order to verify that they fulfill the required documents and data, including conducting a field inspection of the property subject to the application, to ensure It conforms to the requirements and standards approved for the required license.
According to the decision, engineering offices are fully responsible for the application’s compliance with all legal, administrative, technical and engineering requirements established according to the type and nature of the service being requested. To grant engineering offices the authority to conduct field inspection and inspection work, it is required that they successfully pass the tests and training approved by the Ministry concerned with municipal affairs.
After completing the examination and inspection tasks, the engineering office must issue a form to that effect and deliver it to the concerned municipality to decide whether or not to grant a license in accordance with the procedures stipulated in the laws, regulations and decisions approved by it. Whoever is entrusted with carrying out the inspection work on requests for municipal services must adhere to all rules, requirements and instructions issued by the ministry concerned with municipal affairs and the relevant authorities.
The controls and powers of those entrusted with any ancillary work related to municipal service requests shall be determined by a decision of the Minister concerned with municipal affairs, after taking the opinion of the relevant authorities.
Without prejudice to civil or criminal liability, if it is proven that the institute has violated any of the provisions of this decision, the Minister concerned with municipal affairs shall issue a reasoned decision with one of the following measures, which include: a written warning, suspension of the duties of reviewing applications, for a period not exceeding one year, and withdrawal of the authority to review applications.
In all cases, if what the institute committed against it is suspected of constituting a criminal offense, the Public Prosecution must be informed of that, and the Council for Regulating the Practice of Engineering Professions must be notified of any violations committed by the engineering office to take the necessary action in this regard.
