NCA to improve standards and enforce ethics in the construction industry

Last Updated 14 years ago by Kenya Engineer

The establishment of the National Construction Authority is set to improve standards and enforce ethics in the construction industry. This was revealed by the PS at the Ministry of Public Works Dr. Gideon Mulyungi at the AAK-Engineers Chapter Dinner held at the serena hotel on the 29th of November.

Dr. Mulyungi had been invited to enlighten the engineers on the National construction Authority and Its objectives. The NCA was established through an act of parliament – NCA Act No.41 of 2011 after a process started over ten years ago by the Ministry of Public works in conjunction with the ministries of Roads, Water, Energy, Housing and Local government.

The unregulated construction industry had been experiencing challenges some of which are listed below;

1.    Collapsing buildings; 15 years since sunbeam collapsed over 30 buildings have collapsed leading to loss of over 100 innocent lives and loss of over 10B in lost revenue to the economy.
2.    Migration of contractors from one institution to another; contractors migrating from one institution after termination and others migrating from government to private sector after termination by government and vice versa.
3.    Rogue developers who want to save money at the expense of members of the public by not engaging qualified professionals, contractors or construction workers.

NCA was therefore formed to bring order and return sanity to the industry. Among the services to be offered by NCA are listed below:

–    Register and regulate contractors
–    Accredit and register construction workers
–    Provide continuous training programmes to contractors
–    Conduct research on emerging building   technologies and disseminate the same to contractors and construction workers
–    Enforce appropriate standards and code of conduct in the industry.

The board will be funded through a 0.05% levy collected on all construction projects, subscription from contractors, Donation/grants and central government exchequer.

NCA will be managed by a 15 member board with representation from AAK, IQSK, KFMB, LSK, IEK, KABCEC, RACECA, Special Interest groups, PS-MOPW, Treasury, Local Govt, Housing and SCAC. The Authority will also have an Executive Director and staff members spread all over the country.  The board was put in place on 18th of may 2012 while the ED was appointed on the 19th of November 2012. Draft regulations for the board are ready and awaiting approval by parliament to start operation and collecting levy.

NCA is expected to improve industry standards, enforce ethics and integrity of contractors/construction workers and give more commissions to the professionals.

Engineers have been requested to help give public education about NCA and not to pre-qualify a constructor if he is not registered and cleared by NCA.