The Board of Professional Engineers of Queensland (BPEQ) has boosted its Legal, Compliance and Investigations Unit with the appointment of a third legal officer and a second investigator.

Registrar Kylie Mercer said the new appointments would benefit the public and the profession and help maintain high standards of engineering in Queensland.

“Most engineers are qualified and competent professionals who are appropriately registered with BPEQ to be able to carry out professional engineering services, however, there are small number of operators that flout the law,” Ms Mercer said.

“An unregistered person carrying out professional engineering services is a risk to the public as they may not possess the required level of engineering qualification and skill.

“Unregistered persons also impact registered professional engineers by taking away work from those engineers and firms who do the right thing.

“Engineering is a highly technical profession that has a profound impact on the public, as such it is proper that the profession is regulated and only qualified and competent persons are permitted to carry out professional engineering services.”

Ms Mercer said the boost to the Legal, Compliance and Investigations Unit meant BPEQ would be able to more actively enforce the Professional Engineers Act and manage complaints and investigations.

In addition to the staff appointments, BPEQ is pushing for amendments to the Professional Engineers Act to allow increased investigative and information gathering powers; workshopping proposals to promote engineers and engineering firms that do comply with the Professional Engineers Act and has undertaken an awareness campaign to encourage the public to only engage registered professional engineers.

Acknowledging its responsibilities to educate the profession about the Professional Engineers Act and promote registration, BPEQ is also engaging with engineers and employers through a series of registration roadshows.