Kramer Ausenco Fiji Country Manager, Shane Harris, is playing an important role within the Construction Industry Council (CIC) in the work to improve registration and licencing of builders in Fiji.
Mr. Harris is an executive committee member of Fiji’s CIC, and Chairperson of the Licensing Task Force in the country.
He was a guest speaker at the CIC conference held over June 15 and 16, 2019, which had 420 delegates attend from a broad range of sectors-public and private-and all forms of professionals, among them, builders, developers and contractors.
In his presentation at the conference, Mr. Harris, who is also the Kramer Ausenco Group Building Services Manager, said that in Fiji the licencing of the construction industry must be led by Government and supported by the CIC.
“It needs to be independent, with a solid legal framework, and technically qualified people to ensure compliance and enforcement,” he said.
He said the main role of the Licensing Task Force is to represent the construction industry by assisting the Government with the development of an advanced builders’ registration and licensing platform in Fiji.
Mr. Harris said the objectives of the Licensing Task Force are to:
- Work closely with Government to develop a licensing model;
- Work with industry to get an alignment with industry;
- Explore alignment and model with an existing licensing platform such as in Queensland, Australia or New Zealand; and
- Set a timeframe for advancement of licensing in Fiji in alignment with Government objectives.
“Our main focus is to develop a draft licensing and registration document, that if endorsed and supported by Government, will form the legislation for the licensing of builders in Fiji,” he said.
Mr. Harris said this will include a tier rating system for builders and contractors and the current model they are looking at is in Queensland and based on project value. It also includes the funding model from Government to support the licensing review panel which comprises of representatives from CIC and Government (Construction Implementation Unit, and Ministry of Industry Tourism and Trade). And it involves producing a model (draft) detailing the requirements for registration and licensing of professional builders. The draft will be submitted to CIC and its members for endorsement prior to issue to Government for final review and sign-off.
Photo captions
Listing Image: Shane Harris.
Banner Image: George Rubine, Shane Harris, Gordon Jenkins, Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism Premila Kumar and Vijay Naidu during Construction Industry Council trade show at Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva on June 13, 2019. Photo: Ronald Kumar/Fiji Sun