Offices & Engineering Companies Regulation

Regulation No. 28 of 2016

Offices & Engineering Companies Regulation

Article 1: Regulation name and effective date

This Regulation shall be cited (Offices & Engineering Companies Regulation of 2016) and shall come into force as of the date on which it is published in the official gazette.

Article 2: Definitions

1. The following words and expressions, wherever stated herein, shall have the below meanings given to them unless the context implies otherwise:

1. The definitions stated in the Law shall be considered wherever stated herein.

Article 3: Registration condition of engineering work practice:

The engineering consultation work may only be practiced through the offices and engineering companies registered in accordance with the provisions hereof.

Article 4: Conditions of registration in the offices registries

1. The Association member wishing to register an office in his name in the Offices Registry must meet the following conditions:
   1. To be a Jordanian national.
   2. To be registered in the Association registries and to have paid the fees incurred by him to the Association.
   3. To have practiced the occupation for no less than seven years with three of which in the design works.
   4. To be dedicated for practicing the occupation at his office.
2. The engineering company registration must meet the following conditions:
   1. To be registered with the Company Public Controller.
   2. To have its objectives gone in conformity with the Law and this Regulation.
   3. To have its headquarter located in Jordan.
   4. To have the dedicated technical staff.
   5. To have the shares or stocks of the shareholders who are Jordanian members of the Association dedicated for work therein no less than 50% of the company’s capital or shares thereof.
   6. To have Jordanian members no less than half the partners in the company.
   7. To have the company’s authorized signatory been one of the Jordanian members dedicated for work therein, and to have his experience in practicing the occupation no less than seven years with three of which in the design works.

Article 5: Missions of General Assembly of the Offices & Engineering Companies Authority

1. A body named “Offices & Engineering Companies Authority” shall be formed within the Association, and its General Assembly shall be formed of the offices and engineering companies registered with the Association and paying their annual fees in accordance with the provisions of the Law and this Regulation. The General Assembly shall aim at regulating and developing the engineering consultation work.
2. The General Assembly of the Offices & Engineering Companies Authority shall have the following missions:
   1. To elect a Head, Deputy Head, Authority Board members and Association Central Body members in accordance with the provisions hereof.
   2. To discuss the annual report submitted by the Authority Board of its works and activities of the previous year.
   3. To make a program of the Authority’s works of the next year.
   4. To make a decision concerning any proposal made by the Authority Board.
   5. To approve the offices and engineering companies remuneration collection procedures with respect to their specializations.
   6. To discuss any draft code amending the provisions of this Regulation and to make the recommendations to the Board to make the suitable resolution with respect thereto in accordance with the provisions of the Law.
   7. To determine the financial contributions payable by the offices and engineering companies to the Authority’s account.

Article 6: General Assembly annual and extraordinary sessions:

1. The General Assembly shall hold its annual ordinary session during April of each year on a date to be specified by the Authority Board, provided that it is announced in a local daily paper 14 days prior to the session date.
2. An extraordinary session of the General Assembly may be held upon a request made by the Board of the Authority Board or upon a request made by 50 offices or engineering companies any of which paying the annual fees; and in this case, no subject unstated in the agenda of such session may be discussed.
3. The General Assembly session shall be headed by the Chairman or his Deputy in case of his absence; and if both of them are absent, the session shall be headed by the most senior attendant of the Authority Board members.
4. The office or engineering company shall be represented in the General Assembly by the office owner or partner member authorized in writing in the administrative and technical matters one day before the General Assembly session, provided that he is paying the Association annual fees.
5. The Board shall be represented in the General Assembly session by the Association President, Vice President or a Board member.
6. The General Assembly session shall be quorate in presence of the majority of its members. If the majority fails to meet within the first hour of the session time, the General Assembly shall be called for holding a second session one week later, and the second session shall be quorate no matter who attends.
7. The General Assembly shall make its resolutions by the majority of votes of the attending members; and if the votes are tied, the Head of the session shall have a casting vote.
8. The number of votes of each office or engineering company shall be equal to the number of specializations in which it is registered, provided that such specializations have been registered 30 days prior to the General Assembly session date.

Article 7: Authority Board components:

1. The Authority Board consists of the following:
   1. Chairman.
   2. Deputy Chairman.
   3. Three engineers owning offices and engineering companies belonging to the consultation office category.
   4. Three engineers owning offices and engineering companies belonging to the engineering office category.
   5. Three engineers owning offices and engineering companies belonging to the engineer’s office or expert engineer’s office category.
2. The Authority Board term shall three years as of the date of being elected.

Article 8: Offices & Engineering Companies Authority Board powers:

The Authority Board shall have the following missions and powers:

1. To supervise the offices and engineering companies and to follow up their affairs at the Association.
2. To regulate, upgrade and develop the engineering consultation work.
3. To study, categorize and modify the offices and engineering companies registration applications.
4. To register the approved specialization heads and the engineers working for the offices and engineering companies.
5. To follow up the offices and engineering companies practice of engineering consultation work; to monitor their compliance with the applicable laws, regulations and instructions; and to review any violation of the said legislations.
6. To suggest any draft code amending the provisions hereof and to present to the General Assembly.
7. To study the minimum remunerations of the offices and engineering companies in relation to the engineering consultation work and to make a recommendation thereof to the Board.
8. To form a committee(s) to assist the Authority Board in its works.
9. To appoint the Authority representative in the technical committees formed at the Association to meet the specializations heads.
10. To appoint the Authority representative in the committees formed in the Association to approve the minimum technical requirements necessary to be met in the engineering schemes.
11. To appoint the Offices and Engineering Companies representatives in any of the engineering consultation work committees in the Association or the Arab or International Consultative Offices & Engineering Corporations Body.
12. To hold seminars, conferences, training courses, galleries and issue the periodical publications relevant to the engineering consultation work.
13. To create work opportunities for the offices and engineering companies at the national, Arab and international levels.
14. To promote the cooperation and experience exchange between the Jordanian and non-Jordanian offices and engineering companies.
15. To work on giving the priority of the consultative work to the Jordanian offices and engineering companies.
16. To regulate the contracting relationship of the offices and engineering companies with clients; and to prepare the engineering service contract forms necessary to do so.
17. To hear any technical disputes and occupational conflicts among the offices and engineering companies or with their clients referred to it by the Board; and such conflicts may include the remunerations, mutual remuneration distribution into the offices and engineering companies, and making the recommendations in respect thereof to the Board.
18. To make a recommendation to the Board to invest the Offices & engineering companies account funds in accordance with the regulations, instructions and principles adopted by the Association.
19. To make a recommendation to the Board to make the technical instructions or amendments thereto.
20. To review any suggestion made by any of the General Assembly members.
21. Any other missions as may be assigned by the Board.

Article 9: Conditions of nomination to the Offices & Engineering Companies Authority Board

1. The Chairman of Deputy Chairman position nominee shall meet the following conditions:
   1. To have practiced the occupation for no less than 15 years.
   2. To be the owner of the office or engineering company he represents and to have been dedicated for practicing the occupation therein for at least seven years with no less than five of which in the consultative category prior to the date on which the nomination is closed.
2. The Authority Board membership nominee of the consultation office category shall meet the following conditions:
   1. To have practiced the occupation for no less than 11 years.
   2. To have been dedicated for practicing the occupation in the office or engineering company categorized as a consultation office for no less than five years.
   3. To have owned an office or engineering company and been dedicated for working therein for no less than two years in total.
3. The Authority Board membership nominee of the other categories shall meet the following conditions:
   1. To have practiced the occupation for no less than seven years.
   2. To have been dedicated for practicing the occupation in an office or engineering company belonging to the category of which he is nominated and for no less than three years.
   3. To have owned an office or engineering company and been dedicated for working therein for no less than two years in total.

Article 10: Election and vote counting:

1. The Authority Board shall announce to open the door for nomination to the elections for seven days 14 days prior to the set General Assembly session.
2. The Authority Board members election shall be made on the day following the annual ordinary General Assembly session.
3. The elections shall take place at the Association Headquarter in Amman and the branches determined by the Board upon a recommendation made by the Authority Board in presence of the Board representative.
4. In its annual ordinary session, the General Assembly shall form a committee(s) to supervise the elections, and it shall consist of five members in addition to two reserve members who may not be nominees, and the committee will appoint a head from one of its members.
5. The election polls shall be opened at 9:00 am on the election day, and they shall be closed at 7:00 pm of the same day no matter how many voters are there.
6. The Chairman, his Deputy and the members of the Authority Board shall be elected in secret voting on a single ballot signed by the Head of the Committee supervising the elections and sealed by the Association seal.
7. The complementary members of offices and engineering companies in the Central Body of the Association shall be elected on a separate ballot.
8. Once the election process is completed, the ballots and votes shall be counted in presence of the supervising committee, and the Board representative shall announce the result.
9. The persons having the highest number of votes shall be declared as a winner of the Chairman, Deputy Chairman or member of the Authority Board.
10. In case of a tie of votes of two or more nominees, the winner will be selected from them based on a draw to be conducted by the committee supervising the elections in presence of the Board representative.
11. The ballots shall be counted electronically, and the unreadable ballots shall be counted manually and taken into consideration for the votes counting.

Article 11: Second term reelection

1. The Chairman or his Deputy may be reelected for a second term, and none of them may be nominated for the same position until one term has passed since the end of his previous term.
2. To reelect the Chairman of his Deputy for a second term, the membership period below 1.5 year shall not be considered a full term. As for resignation, the Chairman or his Deputy term shall be considered full no matter how long the membership is.

Article 12: Objection to election result

1. 50 offices of the General Assembly members who take part in the voting shall have the right to object to the election result in whole or in part before the Board within 14 days of the date on which the elections are held. The Board shall make its justified resolution within 30 days of the date on which the objection is made.
2. If the Board deems the elections are illegal in whole or in part, it shall call the General Assembly of the offices or engineering companies for an extraordinary session within 30 days of the date on which the resolution to remake or complete the elections is made.

Article 13: Vacant positions in the Authority Board

1. If, for any reason, the Chairman position becomes vacant before the end of the Authority Board term, his Deputy shall chair the Authority. In this case, the Authority Board shall elect a new deputy chairman from its members categorized as a consultative office.
2. If, for any reason, an Authority Board member position becomes vacant, he shall be replaced with the nominee who came next to him in the number of votes of the same category. If there is no one of the nominees as per the votes places meeting the membership conditions, the Board shall, upon a submission made by the Authority Board, appoint that member who meets the membership conditions of the vacant position.
3. 1. If the number of elected members whose positions in the Authority Board become vacant at the same time is six or more, and the remaining period of the Authority Board term is longer than six months, the Authority Board shall be deemed to have resigned. In this case, the Board shall call the General Assembly of the offices and engineering companies for a session to elect a new Board of the Authority to complete the term period within 30 days of the resignation date.
   2. If the remaining period of the term of the General Assembly is less than six months and regardless of the number of members whose positions are vacant, the Board shall appoint replacements who meet the membership conditions to complete the term period.
4. If the Authority Board operations stop for any reason, the Board shall appoint a committee consisting of 11 engineers who meet the conditions stated in Article 9 hereof to take on the duties the Authority Board until the Authority Board restore its powers or until a new Authority Board is elected in accordance with the provisions hereof within no later than three months of the date of this committee appointment.

Article 14: Authority Board membership loss

The Chairman, his Deputy or Authority Board member loses his membership of the Authority Board in any of the following cases:

1. If he misses any of the registration conditions stated in Clause A of Article 4 of this Regulation.
2. If he misses any of the nomination conditions stated in Article 9 of this Regulation.
3. If the office or engineering company represented by the member misses any of the registration conditions stated in Clause B of Article 4 of this Regulation.
4. If the category of the office or engineering company represented by the member is changed.
5. If he resigns.
6. If he absents for three sessions in a row with no excuse acceptable for the Authority Board.

Article 15: Authority Board meetings and quorum:

The Authority Board shall meet upon an invitation made by its Chairman or Deputy Chairman when he is absent for one time at least every 14 days. The meeting will be quorate in presence of at least six members, provided that the Chairman or his Deputy among the attendants. The Board shall make its resolutions by the majority of the attending members’ votes. In case of a tie in the votes, the Chairman of the meeting shall have a casting vote.

Article 16: Engineering office’s name

1. The office or engineering company shall be named in its owner’s name or in any technical name as he may chose.
2. The technical name must be in Arabic and not similar to the technical names of the other offices or engineering companies.
3. The office or engineering company papers shall hold the technical name or the names of the dedicated companies of the Association members.
4. The technical name may neither be given to the office or engineering company nor changed without obtaining the prior written consent of the Authority Board.

Article 17: Offices and engineering companies categories

The offices and engineering companies shall be categorized as follows:

1. An engineer office to practice the engineering consultation work in one of the engineering specializations, and it shall be at any of the following two ranks:
   1. Engineer office A if the engineer who owns the office has an experience in the engineering work of no less than 12 years at least 5 of which in the design works in an office in which he practiced the same specialization or at any entity practicing the design work and approved by the Authority Board.
   2. Engineer office B if the engineer owning the office has an experience in the engineering work of no less than 7 years at least 3 of which in the design works in an office in which he practiced the same specialization or at any entity practicing the design work and approved by the Authority Board.
2. An expert engineer office to practice the engineering consultation work in one of the engineering specializations in accordance with the following conditions:
   1. His work is limited to consultation and experience.
   2. To refrain from entering into contracts to prepare studies of complete projects or to supervise the implementation of such projects.
   3. The engineer owning the office practiced the occupation for at least 15 years after he had gotten the first degree in engineering at least 8 years of which in the specialization he practiced in the office; or he practiced the occupation for at least 10 years after he had the PhD degree in the specialization at least 5 of which in the specialization he practices in the office.
3. Engineering office to practice the engineering consultation work in two specializations or more of the engineering specializations, provided that the experience of each specialization head in practicing the engineering work is at least 7 years 3 of which in the design work.
4. A consultation office to practice the engineering consultation work in two or more engineering specializations and to have a dedicated technical staff in accordance with the two following conditions:
   1. Each specialization is headed by an engineer with an experience of no less 12 years 5 of which in the design work.
   2. The number of engineers working in the office is no less than the number of the representatives of the specializations in which it is registered.

Article 18: Specializations approved for the offices and engineering companies:

1. As of the effective date of this Regulation, the engineering offices and works shall practice their works in the approved engineering specializations as follows:

Construction, bridges, high buildings, soil and foundations mechanics (site inspection), project management, environment, roads, traffic, water and drainage, survey, material inspection, dams, quality assurance, building architecture, urban planning, interior design, land and sites decoration, heritage and historical buildings maintenance and restoration, building mechanics, industrial studies, forces, communications, electronics, automatic control, chemistry, water sources, water purification and treatment, geology, petroleum, mining, mines, and well digging for the purpose of geological and mining studies.

1. Upon a decision made by the Minister and a submission made by the Board based on a recommendation made by the Authority Board or the Engineering Disciplines Boards, new specializations may be added to approve new engineering specializations for the offices and engineering companies.
2. The offices and engineering companies of the soil and foundations mechanics (site inspection) specialization must have two engineers one of whom is registered in the civil engineering discipline and the other is registered in mines, mining, geological engineering and petroleum engineering discipline. Furthermore, one of the must head the specialization, provided that he meets the conditions necessary for the specialization head in his field in accordance with the office and engineering company category. The other engineer’s experience must be no less than three years in his specialization field; and in case office has another specialization, the conditions necessary for his presidency shall be taken into consideration.

Article 19: Prohibited works of the offices, engineering companies, owners thereof and partners therein

1. The offices and engineering companies or any of their owners, partners or workers therein of the members or others are prohibited from practicing of or participating in the contracting, maintenance, operation or manufacturing works; and they shall also be prohibited from trading in the materials and supplies in relation to their works.
2. The provisions of Clause A of this Article shall not be applicable to the consultation works of the public utility management and the improvement of their performance efficiency.

Article 20: Direct contracting

1. Direct contracting may not be made for preparing the license and design schemes of the building projects except for offices and engineering companies registered in the building architecture specialization or the construction engineering specialization.
2. The offices and engineering companies in specialization other than the ones stated in Clause A of this Article may enter into direct contracts with the clients to provide engineering consultation services.
3. The contracting offices and engineering companies stated in Clauses A and B of this Article may complete the specializations necessary to execute the contracts with other offices and engineering companies, provided that they take part in signing the schemes and papers of the contracted works.

Article 21: Changes in the technical staff of the offices and companies

1. The office or engineering company shall inform the Authority Board of any change made to any of them, the technical staff therein or their addresses registered with the Association within 30 days of the date of such change subject to responsibility.
2. The foreign offices and engineering companies shall not provide any information of their situations within the Kingdom to any entity until the Association authenticate such information.

Article 22: Engineering contracts

1. The offices and engineering companies, before carrying out any engineering consultation work, shall enter into a contract with the client in accordance with the form prepared by the Authority Board and shall keep a copy of the contract and any amendment made thereto with the Association within 30 days of its signature date.
2. 1. The offices and engineering companies who enter into consortium or partnership contracts shall keep a copy of such contracts with the Association.
   2. Subject to disciplinary action and categorization revision, the offices and engineering companies are prohibited from entering into any contract aiming at getting commissions without providing any actual engineering services.
3. The Association shall not hear any dispute arising between the offices and engineering companies and the clients except in accordance with the contracts kept therewith.
4. No non-Jordanian office or non-Jordanian engineering company shall be entitled to carry our any engineering consultation work within the Kingdom without obtaining the written consent of the Board based on a written recommendation from the Authority Board and in accordance with the following conditions:
   1. The work is pertinent to designing a project that needs an experience unavailable at the national level.
   2. To work in the Kingdom through its foreign technical staff.
   3. To enter into a partnership with a Jordanian office or a Jordanian engineering company with the Jordanian office or engineering company having no less than 30% of the contract value.
5. Upon a submission made by the Minister, the Council of Ministers may except any non-Jordanian office or non-Jordanian engineering company from the provisions of Clause D of this Article.

Article 23: Consultative offices and engineering companies obligations

Upon practicing their consultative engineering work, the offices and engineering companies must comply with the following:

1. The applicable legislations related to the engineering works designed or supervised by them with no modifications or alterations.
2. Notifying the Board of any violation as they may find in the engineering works.
3. The Jordanian Codes in accordance with the applicable National Construction Law.
4. The adopted technical requirements necessary to be met by the engineering schemes for the purpose of licensing or implementation.
5. The preparation of full files of their projects with each of them including the following:
   1. Scheme principles, contracting contract, work program and requirements and the calculation notes; and they shall maintain the same for no less than ten years after they have been authenticated by the Association.
   2. Any amendment made to the schemes, tender original documents and the clients’ consents to the alteration orders and additional works made to the project during the design or supervision.
6. To provide the clients with regular reports of the projects they design or supervise in accordance with the technical instructions and forms made by the Association for this purpose.
7. The planning conditions and provisions, and none of them may not breach the design and supervision phases; compliance with the public safety conditions during all implementation phases; and notifying the competent regulatory entities of any violation of the planning provisions of public safety conditions.

Article 24: Engineering services referred to the offices or companies

The ministries, public and official departments, institutions, municipalities and construction licensing entities must comply with providing the Association with the information in relation to the engineering services referred to the offices or engineering companies.

Article 25: Committee on Monitoring the Engineering Department Performance

A committee shall be formed in the Association, chaired by General Secretary and membered by two persons to be named by the Association Board and two persons to be named by the Authority Board. The committee will monitor the Technical Department performance of the engineering consultation work (Engineering Department), and it will make its recommendations to the Board.

Article 26: Authority’s account and financial resources

1. In the Association’s fund, a special account shall be opened and named “Offices & Engineering Companies Authority’s Account.”
2. The financial resources of the Offices & Engineering Companies Authority’s account consist of the following:
   1. The Jordanian and non-Jordanian offices and engineering companies registration fees.
   2. The Jordanian and non-Jordanian offices and engineering companies annual fees.
   3. 35% of the remuneration fees payable by the Jordanian and non-Jordanian offices and engineering companies.
   4. 35% of the occupation practice fees payable by the Jordanian and non-Jordanian offices and engineering companies.
   5. 35% of the fines and penalties incurred by the Jordanian and non-Jordanian offices and engineering companies.
   6. 35% of any financial reimbursement collected for the services specified in the Association Bylaw and provided to the Jordanian and non-Jordanian offices and engineering companies.
   7. 35% of the technical and financial dispute lawsuits fees heard by the Authority Board.
   8. The profits generated by the mechanism of payment of the remunerations to the offices and companies after deducting 20% as administrative expenses and costs.
   9. Any contributions imposed by the General Assembly of Offices upon its members to this account.
   10. The allotments made by the Central Body in the Association to this account.
   11. Donations and aids received by the Association and accepted by the Authority Board in accordance with the provisions of Law.
   12. The revenues from the investment of the account funds.
   13. The revenues from the Authority’s activities.
   14. Any other resources approved by the Board in accordance with the provisions of Law.
3. The financial resources stated in Items from 1 to 8 are calculated after the deduction of 15% of the sum of those amounts for the account of the occupation development in the Association’s Fund.
4. The expenditure from the Offices & Engineering Companies Authority’s account for the following purposes:
   1. Upgrading and developing the engineering consultation work.
   2. Supporting the Authority’s activities.
   3. Paying the Authority members’ contributions to the medical insurance fund and the social security fund established in the Association as may be decided by the General Assembly of the Offices & Engineering Companies.

Article 27: Methods of expenditure from the Authority’s account

In spite of the content of the Engineers Association Bylaw:

1. The expenditure from the Offices & Engineering Companies Authority’s account shall be made by the resolution of the Board upon a recommendation made by the Authority Board.
2. To spend from the Offices & Engineering Companies Authority’s account, it is necessary to approve the signature of the Association President or Vice President of his Deputy and the Association Treasurer of his Deputy.

Article 28: Signature on the issued correspondences

The Chairman or his Deputy when he is absent shall sign the correspondences issued by the Authority.

Article 29: Disciplinary actions

Upon violating the provisions of this Regulation and the instructions made by virtue hereof, each office and engineering company will be subject to the disciplinary actions stipulated in the Law.

Article 30: Regulation provisions enforcement

Upon a recommendation made by the Authority Board, the Board shall make the instructions necessary to enforce the provisions of this Regulation including:

1. The technical instructions related to the partial or full engineering supervision provisions.
2. Conditions of incorporation of an office or engineering company, as well as the headquarter and technical staff of any of them.
3. The certified engineer registration conditions and his work conditions and dedication in one of the engineering consultation work specializations in the offices and engineering companies.

Article 31: Cancelations

The Offices & Engineering Companies Regulation No. 2 of 1985 shall be canceled but the instructions made by virtue thereof shall remain in effect until they are canceled, amended or replaced in accordance with the provisions of this Regulation.