At its November meeting, the Professional Engineers Board (PEB) was led through a review of the proposed act by a team from the Ministry of Economic Affairs led by Brickell Pinder, Director of Trade and Industry accompanied by Tia Hanna, Timothy Odle of the Caricom Secretariat and Akil Yearwood of the Cariforum Secretariat.
During introductory remarks Ms. Pinder noted that under Cariforum/European Union and Cariforum/United Kingdom economic partnership agreements, trade of professional services can take place however, there must first be mutual agreement between Cariforum member states. She informed the board that Caricom is working on a mutual agreement for engineers which will be discussed by Messrs. Odle and Yearwood.
Mr. Yearwood started his presentation by referring to an agreement made in 2013 that mandated all the member states to put in place an independent regulator of engineers and that all engineers within the community are registered and licensed in order to practice and facilitate the single registration of all engineers. This was meant to allow engineers registered/licensed in one territory to practice in another territory without having to register in that territory.
Mr. Yearwood further noted that Caricom has been working since 2013 to propose the legal framework to give life to this policy based on comments made by professional engineers and is now seeking input from the Bahamas. The draft document is entitled “CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY (SINGLE REGISTRATION OF PROFESSIONALS) ACT, 2019” and can be found at CARIFORUM NOTICE TO ALL PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS – Professional Engineers Board (pebahamas.org) .
Mr. Yearwood highlighted all sections of the act and Section 2 and Section 4 of the act are reprinted here:
2. Purpose of Act
(1) This Act seeks to promote the operationalization of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy with respect to the provision of professional services, by establishing a framework for:
(a) the single registration of professionals, based on standards agreed by
COHSOD pursuant to Article 35 of the Revised Treaty; and
(b) enabling Regulatory Authorities to:
(i) issue Single Registration Certificates to Community nationals for
the purpose of seeking recognition as professionals in other Member
States; and
(ii) accept Single Registration Certificates issued by External
Regulatory Authorities for the purpose of being recognized as a
professional in [Member State].
4. Scope of Act
(1) This Act applies to the issue and acceptance of Single Registration Certificates by Regulatory Authorities for the purpose of facilitating the recognition of Community nationals as professionals in [Member State] and other Member States.
(2) This Act shall not apply to:
(a) the issue or grant of licenses or permits to practice any profession in [Member State];
(b) applications under relevant enactments not involving the standards for single registration; or
(c) any person who is not a community national.
It expected that when enacted the act would apply to all participating Caricom territories and extended to Cariforum territories which then gives effect to mutual agreements with the European Union and the United Kingdom.
As explained by Mr. Yearwood the act only applies to the registration of engineers (or other professionals) and is not a license to practice in another territory without compliance to other local laws and applies only to community nationals.
Each national professional engineering regulator would be required to submit their requirements for registration to the secretariat for consideration by a Caricom organ known as the CORSOD. The CORSOD would collate the requirements into a common standard to be used by the member states of the community.
If a member state accepts new qualifications these must be approved by the Minister of that state who will then seek the approval of the other Ministers.
Once the current Bahamian registration standards are accepted by the Caricom States, professional engineers registered in the Bahamas would be able to apply for the single registration certificate as would registered engineers from other Caricom States in their territory.
The act includes provisions for refusal of recognition of the certificate in member states and allows for Caricom nationals to apply directly to national regulatory bodies.
It was noted that the Bahamas is not a member of the Caribbean Single Market Economy, and a single registration certificate would not allow nationals of other territories to practice in the Bahamas without meeting other requirements of the Bahamas.
All registered engineers and other interested persons are invited to provide comment to the Board through email [email protected] no later than December 15th.
– The Professional Engineers Board