RIYADH — An Arab expatriate who worked as an engineer for an engineering consultation office falsified his diplomas and challenged the Saudi Engineering Council (SEC) to take action against him, the council told Al-Hayat daily.

SEC chairman Hamad Al-Shaqawi said the worker changed his profession to one that does not fall under the supervision of SEC and had his sponsorship transferred without obtaining prior consent from his former employer.

He said: “He threatened the council flagrantly and defied us to take any legal action against him including deportation. He currently works for a consultation office and still practices engineering.”

When the council discovered the fake certificates, they notified his employer. However, the man got his sponsorship transferred somehow and changed his profession immediately. “We have contacted the authorities and asked them to take proper action against him,” Al-Shaqawi added. So many engineering offices and companies have sustained financial losses and damage because of this man, claimed Al-Shaqawi.

Many government projects those offices and companies were undertaking had been taken away from them after authorities found out the man held fake certificates and he was not a real engineer, he said.

Daud Al-Dalbahi, owner of a contracting company where the fake engineer worked, told Al-Hayat he was shocked when he discovered the expatriate was illiterate.

Al-Dalbahi notified the government agency that owned the project and lost the contract. “We have suffered huge losses over the past 10 years and all government projects were taken away from us because of this man. “We’ve been on the verge of declaring bankruptcy.”

The fake engineer has been working in the Kingdom for over 25 years and worked before for government agencies, according to Al-Dalbahi, who demanded the government agencies compensate him for his losses and the reputation he lost in the market because of his former employee.

Last September the SEC and the Control and Investigation Bureau (CIB) signed a memorandum of understanding to crack down on forged engineering diplomas.

 
[wpResize]