Protest of Independent Engineers of Serbia over the state of the Serbian construction industry - Irresponsibility, incompetence and unprofessionalism

The multitude of those who have been expressing their dissatisfaction in recent weeks and calling for responsibility and greater vigilance in construction projects in Serbia have been joined these days by the Independent Engineers of Serbia, who have prepared requests for the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure and the Engineering Chamber of Serbia, all with the aim, as they state, “of ensuring that such accidents (the collapse of the canopy – author’s comment) never happen again, and that the level of execution and design is returned to the level that is necessary.” The Independent Engineers of Serbia have called on all engineers to join the initiative by personally signing the request, and they have published the addresses where this can be done on their website.

- Due to the gradual degradation of our profession, reputation and honor over many years, with the ultimate consequence of the tragedy that occurred at the Novi Sad railway station, many engineers of the Republic of Serbia have been brought to a point beyond which it is no longer possible to continue working professionally in this country and live peacefully. We are deeply affected both as people and as experts, because each of us is fighting individually in our workplace with our knowledge against incompetence and illegality with little or no success. We, deeply shaken by the tragedy, express our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims. We must emphasize that the engineering profession in this country was among the first in the world in terms of knowledge, innovations and achievements in the past, and that we are students of conscientious and excellent engineers, that there are enough experts in this country, but that their action and influence on the proper management of projects has been systematically prevented for years, both by passing negative laws and by giving authority to unprofessional personnel to manage engineering projects - the Independent Engineers announced.

In their statement, which is also circulating on the social network Linkedin, they say that they are almost forced to take this type of action “due to the irresponsibility, incompetence and unprofessional project management, as well as the adoption of laws and regulations that devalue and make senseless the engineering profession, all with the aim of fast, unsafe and illegal implementation of investments.”

- We are particularly dissatisfied with the current situation and politicization of the Engineering Chamber of Serbia and we emphasize the following: In accordance with the current Statute of the Engineering Chamber of Serbia, Article 10, item 5, one of the obligations of the Engineering Chamber of Serbia is to: “protect, coordinate and represent the members of the Chamber in the country and abroad.”