Tanzania: Engineers challenged to make BRN a success
By Shout-Africa Correspondent – Tanzanian engineers have been lauded as the engine of success in the effective implementation of the government led projects including the Big Results Now (BRN) Programme.
The call was issued on Thursday by the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the President’s Delivery Bureau (PDB), Mr. Peniel Lyimo when giving a keynote address on the Engineers Annual Conference in Dar es Salaam. The meeting theme was on the Role of Engineers in the implementation of the BRN.
“We can have doctors to heal our wounds; lawyers to ensure protection of our transactions or religious leaders to pacify our minds and souls; but the engineers’ physical beautification and safety of our real world is equally important,” said Mr. Lyimo.
He emphasized that the BRN Programme which has already attained significant achievements within a year of its establishment cannot maximize more in the future if the private sector and different professionals like engineers will not play their greater part.
“All the projects under the BRN Programme require professional inputs of engineers from the design to execution stage, therefore, the role of engineers is crucial,” he added.
But Mr. Lyimo raised the issue of ethics in project implementation emphasizing that the BRN is a smart undertaking where all the people involved have to ensure they work ethically and with a business unusual mind-set.
“If you fully exercise your profession, knowledge and ethics you can make a significant impact on the delivery of the BRN Programme by reducing the cost of projects and the execution periods.
“We know that project costs can be high where there are flaws in design, supervision of works and absence of enforcement of professional ethics. All these variables are within the control of the Engineers Registration Board which is expected to play its proper role.”
The BRN Programme was incepted in July, 2013 and is overseen by PDB which is an independent department established under the office of the President of the United Republic of Tanzania.
The BRN has started with six initial sectors of energy, water, education, transport, agriculture and resource mobilization. The BRN approach involves priority setting, target setting and close monitoring and problem solving for timely project execution.
