CRPEP organizes Seminar on PII Seminar

26 October 2017

The Council for Regulating the Practice of Engineering Professions (CRPEP) organized a seminar on professional indemnity insurance for engineering offices in the kingdom, which was under the patronage of Eng. Essam bin Abdulla Khalaf, Minister of Works, Municipalities Affairs, and Urban Planning and in cooperation with Bahrain Society of Engineers and Bahrain Insurance Association.

In his speech, Eng. Abdul Majeed Al Qassab, Council Chairman, said that the Council is proud of the strong relations and continuous cooperation between the Council and all stakeholders, particularly engineering offices operating in the kingdom. He added that this seminar sheds light on professional indemnity insurance for engineering offices, which is a key requirement for licensing engineering offices in the kingdom. This seminar comes in line with the role the Council is playing to spread awareness of the applicable rules and regulations concerning the practice of engineering professions in the kingdom. Eng. Abdul Majeed Al Qassab emphasized the importance of professional indemnity insurance, for the protection of the rights of engineering offices and clients, and that professional indemnity insurance is enforced worldwide across consulting professions such as doctors, accountants, engineers and others. Eng. Abdul Majeed Al Qassab expressed his deep thanks and appreciation to His Excellency Eng. Essam Bin Abdullah Khalaf for patronizing this event.

Eng. Hasan Al Sheikh, Office Manager, delivered a presentation covering professional indemnity insurance (PII) in accordance with Law No. 51 of 2014 with respect to regulating the practice of engineering professions and its Executive Regulation issued by Ministerial Resolution No. 27 of 2016. Accordingly, the PII policy referred must have a coverage of BD 2 million per year for engineering offices (Foreign Branch, Category A), BD 1 million for Bahraini engineering offices Category A, BD 750,000 for Bahraini engineering offices Category B and BD 500,000 for Bahrain engineering offices Category C, and finally category E must have a PII policy of coverage of BD two million per year. He also pointed out that the Council followed the gradual enforcement of PII policy.

Eng. Hasan Al Sheikh highlighted the latest achievements of the Council, starting with enhanced relations and strengthened cooperation and coordination with key stakeholders through several workshops, seminars, extensive meetings and continuous interaction. The Council organized a workshop in May this year, in which concerned authorities and representatives of engineering offices participated. This workshop came up with important recommendations, and that the Council implemented all of the recommendations assigned to it, and most of the recommendations assigned to other parties were also implemented. The achievements of the Council included the launch of its official website, which is characterized by a high level of transparency, and it contains useful information, for example, the details of any engineering office in the kingdom, can be easily viewed including office category, specialties, contact details, and even the list of engineers and their specialties. Such data are updated on a weekly basis. The website also contains the law of practicing engineering professions and its Executive Regulation in Arabic and English. The Council\'s social media accounts have also been under the name of \"crpep_bahrain\", to reach as many people as possible provide instantaneous updates. The Council\'s recent achievements include preparing the strategic plan for the next two to three years, approving the Executive Regulation with a number of improvements in the regulations, linking the Council to the system of \"Sijilat\" through the Government Data Network (GDN), preparing a proposal for Law amendment and making a number of process improvements which aims at improving quality, reducing costs and shorter processing time.

Representatives of the Bahrain Insurance Association also delivered a presentation covering details on PII under-righting and claims, such as scope, coverage and exceptions, excess amount, retro-active arrangements, claim process and other technical details.

The panel discussion then started with a group of experts in this field, moderated by Eng. Masoud Al Hermi, President of Bahrain Society of Engineers. The Experts included Dr. Wafa Al Mansoori, CRPEP Vice Chair, Eng. Dheya Tawfeeqi, Founder and CEO of Dheya Tawfeeqi Office & Member of Bahraini Engineering Offices Association, Mr. Essam Al Ansari, General Manager of Takaful & Board Member of Bahrain Insurance Association, Mr. Thiergerjan Ntargan and Mr. John Matthews of Trust Re, as representatives of Bahrain Insurance Association.

The meeting was attended by over 280 participants, mostly representing engineering offices operating in the kingdom. In the end of the seminar, Eng. Essam bin Abdullah Khalaf handed over recognition certificates to panelist and thanked all organizers and attendees.