The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) has engaged the Engineering Council of Ghana on the need to use its advocacy power to help enforce the Authority's mandate of checking and sanctioning manufacturers of sub-standard products.

Specifically, building, electrical and other products manufacturers who do not adhere to standards or go through the process of certification would be targeted.

This was made known when the Technical Committee on Standards and Professional Practice of the Engineering Council (EC) paid a familiarisation tour to the GSA to discuss and share ideas on how the two bodies could collaborate to ensure the strict adherence to standards in the engineering industry.

As part of the deliberations, a consensus was reached that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would be signed by the two institutions to initiate a longstanding partnership to promote adherence to the standards developed by the Authority in the engineering sector.

Sir. Fredric Akwaboah, who is the Chairman of the Standards and Professional Practice and the Public and International Affairs (PIAC) committees of the EC, expressed gratitude to the GSA adding the Council was concerned about the recent collapse of buildings in the country.

"It is a great worry to the Council seeing all these buildings collapse. So we want to collaborate properly with the national standards body to address the poor adherence to the standards by some actors in the built environment," Akwaboah said.

He expressed the Council's readiness to partner with the GSA in line with the Authority's 2021 'Year of Enforcement'vision to ensure that sanity was brought to bear in the engineering industry.

The Chairman of the Engineering Council, Kwesi Abbey Sam, said the collaboration with the GSA was key to ensuring the development of standards and technical regulations to guide the engineering sector.

The Director-General of the GSA, Prof. Alex Dodoo, on his part, expressed excitement about the potential the collaboration has on the development of the nation as a whole.

"This collaboration will create more jobs and bring about discipline and most importantly development in the country," he stated.

"Countries cannot develop without strict adherence to standards. Infrastructural development depended heavily on partnership between the national standards body in this case the GSA and the engineering council," Prof. Dodoo noted.

Prof. Dodoo indicated that the GSA had increased its testing capacity, especially in the area of engineering, by extending its working hours and also partnering with private firms in areas where the organisation lacked the capacity.

Mr Charles Amoako, Deputy Director-General in charge of Conformity Assessment at the GSA, appealed to the Council that the two bodies should extend their advocacy power to that of the government to ensure that contractors have their materials and processes inspected and certified by the GSA before public contracts are awarded.

The Engineering Council of Ghana was established in 2011 by an Act of parliament to regulate the practice of engineering and provide related matters in the country.