Introduction to the Tier System

*extracted and edited from EXPLANATORY NOTES TO LATEST AMENDMENTS TO THE REGISTRATION OF ENGINEERS ACT 1967 & THE REGISTRATION OF ENGINEERS REGULATIONS 1990 2nd Ed. (BEM)*

### Introduction

Amendments to the Registration of Engineers Act 1967(REA) have been passed by both houses of Parliament; the Dewan Rakyat on 28th November 2014 and the Dewan Negara on 17" December 2014. After the amendments were passed, Royal Assent was obtained on 14th February 2015 and the amendments were subsequently gazetted on 28th February 2015.

The date of operation of the REA is on 31st July 2015 as announced by the Minister of Works through Gazette P.U.(B) 292. On the same date of 31st July 2015 the Minister of Works announced the date of operation of the amended Regulations through Gazette P.U.(A) 173.

The amended REA will be known as "Registration of Engineers Act 1967 (Revised 2015)", whilst the accompanying Regulations will be known as "Registration of Engineers Regulations 1990 (Revised 2015)". The Regulations are meant to supplement the Act in the day-to-day affairs, operations and functions of the Board of Engineers (Board).

These latest amendments are a direct result of Government polices on trade for services. As Malaysia developed towards a service industry the issue of "liberalisation· of the services came to the forefront in the Free Trade Agreements (FTA) which the country signed. These latest amendments directly address liberalisation issues in order for the country to meet its international obligations.

### Summary of Amendments

With the Act and Regulations coming into operation on 31st July 2015, this second edition will provide a detailed interpretation of the primary amendments related to liberalisation since parts of the Act refers to the Regulations foran explanation. However the explanations may not be exhaustive (when it is not directly related to liberalisation) for which the two aforementioned documents shall always be referred to.

For the benefit of registered Engineers, there are two primary amendments towards meeting Government policies on liberalisation which can be categorised as:

#### (A) Registration of Engineers

1. Section 7 Restrictions on unregistered persons, Graduate Engineers etc.
2. Section 8 Only Professional Engineer and Engineering consultancy practice may submit plans or drawings.
3. Section 10 Qualifications for registration.
4. Section 10A Registration of Temporary Engineers.

#### (B) Registration of Firms/Companies

1. Section 7 A Engineering consultancy practice.
2. Section 78 A body corporate providing professional engineering services, architectural consultancy services and/or quantity surveying services.

### Prerequisite tor Registration

This was the first issue to be addressed by the Board. One of the basic tenets of liberalisation was that citizenship shall not be a mandatory requirement for registration. The amended Act now allows any qualified person to be registered with the Board based solely on his/her qualifications irrespective of citizenship. Accordingly, Section 10A (Registration of Temporary Engineers) is now redundant and the whole section was deleted.

### Restrictions on unregistered persons, Graduate Engineers etc.

A Working Group of the Board in reviewing the REA in 2007 recommended the "licensing" of Professional Engineers and set regulations on qualifications for licensing. A letter from the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACEM) in 2010 to the Board made similar arguments that the qualifications for licensing shall be through an examination system termed the Professional Competency Examination (PCE). Both recommendations were accepted by the Board resulting in a two-tier registration for Professional Engineers; one with a Practising Certiftcate and the other without.

Section 7(1) of the amended REA reads as follows;

*"7(1) No person shall, unless he is a Professional Engineer -*

*(a) ~~practise, carry on business or~~ take up employment which requires him to carry out or perform professional engineering services;*

*(aa) be entitled to describe himself or hold himself out under any name, style or title -*

*(i) bearing the words "Professional Engineer" or the equivalent thereto in any other language;*

*(ii) bearing any other word whatsoever in any language which may reasonably be construed to imply that he is a Professional Engineer; or*

*(iii) using the abbreviation "Ir." before his name or the abbreviation "P.Eng." after his name or in any way in association with his name;*

*(b) use or display any sign, board, card or other device representing or implying that he is a Professional Engineer; or*

*~~(c) be entitled to recover in any court any fee, charge, remuneration or other form of consideration for any professional engineering services rendered; or~~*

*(d) use the stamp as may be prescribed by the Board"*

This amendment only allows a Professional Engineer to take up employment and not to practise business to provide or supply professional engineering services.

The entitlement to practice and to carry on business to provide or supply professional engineering services is transferred to the Professional Engineer with a Practising Certificate in a new Section 7(1A) which reads as follows;

*"7(1A) A person shall not, unless he is a Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate -*

*(a) practice, carry on business or take up employment which requires him to carry out or perform professional engineering services for designated engineering works subject to section 8;*

*(b) be entitled to describe himself or hold himself out under any name, style or title -*

*(i) bearing the words "Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate" or equivalent in any other language; or*

*(ii) bearing any other words in any language which may reasonably be construed to imply that he is a Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate*

*(c) use or display any sign, board, card or other device representing or implying that he is a Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate;*

*(d) be entitled to recover in any court any fee, charge, remuneration or other form of consideration for any professional engineering services rendered subject to*

*section 8; or*

*(e) use the stamp as may be determined by the Board"*

The new Section 7{1A) has taken all the entitlements of the existing Professional Engineer and transferred these entitlements {except for one) to a Professional Engineer with a Practising Certificate in a new Section 8{A).

However, there is a provision under the Second Schedule {Saving and Transitional) for existing Professional Engineers as follows;

*Second Schedule (2)*

*In relation to a Professional Engineer registered under the principal Act, where he applies to be registered as a Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate within one year from the date of the coming into operation of this Act, or any period as may be extended by the Board, he shall be exempted from the provision of paragraph 10D(b)"*

This in effect means existing Professional Engineers who intend to obtain a Practising Certificate have one year after the "date of operation of the Act" or the "date when the Act is in force from" to apply for the Practising Certificate without the need to sit and pass the Professional Competency Examination. Failure to comply would mean the Professional Engineer risks losing this right. The date of operation of the Act is **31st July 2015** as mentioned in the Introduction.

### Only Professional Engineer and Engineering consultancy practice may submit plans or drawings

The shoulder note for Section 8 of the REA has been amended to:-

"Only Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate and Engineering consultancy practice may submit plans or drawings etc.·

Section 8(1), (2) and (3) the word "Professional Engineer" has been replaced with "Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate". Section 8(4)(c) and (d) have been deleted and replaced with a new section as follows;

"**Plan or drawing which a Professional Engineer may submit**

*8A*

1. *A Professional Engineer may submit plans or drawings to any person or authority in Malaysia where such plans or drawings are in relation to an equipment, a plant or a specialised product invented or sold by him or his employer*
2. *The employer referred to in subsection (1) shall not include a client"*

This is the only entitlement of a Professional Engineer apart from taking up employment and the title to be recognized as a "professional".

### New Categories of Registered Persons

Section 10 of the REA was amended to include new sections namely Sections 10C, 10D and 10E to provide for the registration of Engineering Technologist, Professional Engineer with a Practising Certificate and Inspector of Works as shown in Figure 1.

> TLDR: The 2015 Amendment to REA allows international Engineers to practice in Malaysia. Two qualification Tiers were created to differentiate the PEs (Tier 1) from the PEPC (Tier 2). Only PEPCs are legally permitted to be the submitting person.
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