Non-Adherence To Engineering Standards Cause Of Practice Failure — SON Boss

The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has attributed non-compliance to engineering standards and codes as a major factor leading to failure in engineering practice in society.

The Director-General of SON, Malam Farouk Salim, disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday while delivering his address on Sustainable Codes and Standards in Engineering Practice in Nigeria at the 30th COREN Engineering Assembly.

Salim said engineering practice failure globally is linked to failure to stand by ethical conduct, codes and standards.

“It is a failure of the system that can be corrected if all will pay greater attention to ethical conduct, compliance to codes and adherence to standard requirements.

“It is important to create greater awareness targeting the younger engineers and aspiring engineers so that failures seen today in the practice of engineering will not be seen in the future.’’

The SON boss described the conference as timely, especially now that “the bad and the wrong are gradually being accepted as normal’’.

“With my background and experience, I can confidently admonish engineering professionals that engineers are held to high standards as a result of their work.

“They build, among others the computers that hold data in our schools, hospitals and government agencies, the security that keeps data safe from hackers; systems that guide our planes, that schedule our trains; that generally keeps us safe from harm.

“Ethics, codes and standards are three brothers in sustainable engineering,” he said.

Salim described ethics and standard as moral rules or guidelines to be obeyed.

“Standard is a level of quality, a moral rule to be obeyed, a pattern or model that is generally accepted.

“There are various types of standards like basic standard, terminology standard, system standard and testing standard,” he said.

Salim said that ethics, codes and standards could be applied to engineering in two broad ways such as safety and honesty.

“It is clear that when ethics and standards are compromised, disaster happens, hence codes of ethics and standards are elaborated for all engineering activities to guarantee safety, functionality and durability.”