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Unregistered Engineer
John Ruffini |
After months of delays, the court case for a Brisbane dam engineer who wasn't registered with his professional body when he worked through the 2011 flood crisis, was decided in hours.
John Lawrence Ruffini, 47, pleaded guilty in a Brisbane Magistrates Court to working as a professional engineer while unregistered for almost nine months.
The court was told that after suffering an illness that required hospitalisation, Mr Ruffini had forgotten to renew his registration with the Board of Professional Engineers and allowed it to lapse between the end of June 2010 and March 2011.
His memory lapse was revealed during an inquiry into the handling of the south east Queensland floods, when Mr Ruffini had been called in to assist as a duty flood engineer between January 7 and January 17 2011.
But magistrate Anne Thacker found on Wednesday that there was never a question of the public's safety being jeopardised by Mr Ruffini's unregistered status.
Fining Mr Ruffini $1500, the minimum sought by the Board of Professional Engineers, plus $2578 in court costs, Magistrate Thacker described Mr Ruffini's credentials as "impeccable" and said his failure to keep his registration current had no bearing on the high quality of his work.
"There was never a potential for the public to be put at risk," Magistrate Thacker said to Mr Ruffini about his failure to register, adding that Mr Ruffini had served Queensland to high standards on several occasions.
The maximum fine for the charge is $100,000, however the Queensland Board of Professional Engineers only sought a fine of between 1.5 and 3 per cent of the maximum.
It did not seek to have Mr Ruffini convicted.
www.BrisbaneTimes.com.au
12.12.12
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| Peter Borrows - Seqwater CEO |
COMMENT: It beggars belief that Seqwater would employ an unregistered engineer.
Seqwater boss Peter Borrows has a duty to the public to explain why there were no checks on the mandatory credentials of its engineers or if there were, why those checks failed.
To have an unregistered engineer involved in the management of the 2011 Brisbane River flood crisis is unforgivable but to do nothing about it in the wake of this court case is tantamount to treating the public with total disdain.
Peter Borrows needs to reassure the public that Seqwater takes this issue seriously and to explain what checks, if any, are now in place to stop this farce ever happening again.
Failure to acts promptly and publicly on this issue will ultimately lead to calls for his sacking - something which is likely to happen in any event if the promised class action by Maurice Blackburn Lawyers gets serious traction.
Peter Borrows is regarded in the industry as an honourable person but whoever is providing media advice to him should be shown the door before they back their boss further into the corner.
