Cancellation of registration or suspension from practice
27.—(1) Subject to this section, the Board may by order cancel the registration of any professional engineer or suspend him from practice for a period not exceeding one year under any of the following circumstances:
(a)
if he is convicted of any offence involving fraud or dishonesty or moral turpitude;
(b)
if he offers or accepts any commission which in the opinion of the Board is an illicit commission;
(c)
if his registration under this Act or practising certificate has been obtained by fraud or misrepresentation;
(d)
if his qualification for registration under section 15 has been withdrawn or cancelled by the authority through which it was acquired or by which it was awarded;
(e)
if he has been guilty of such improper act or conduct as renders him, in the opinion of the Board, unfit to be a registered professional engineer;
(f)
if it appears to the Board that he has contravened any provision of the prescribed code of professional conduct and ethics;
(g)
if it appears to the Board that he is no longer in a position to carry out the duties of a professional engineer effectively in Singapore;
(h)
if he has been adjudicated a bankrupt and, in the opinion of the Board, his conduct affords reasonable grounds for believing that he will not engage in professional engineering work in accordance with any written law and with honesty and integrity;
(i)
if it appears to the Board that the registered professional engineer, while being a director, manager or employee of a corporation, or a partner, manager or employee of a partnership, had failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the corporation or partnership from acting in a manner (other than as described in section 29(1)(e)) which would warrant the Board revoking any licence granted to the corporation or partnership or imposing a penalty under section 29;
(j)
if he has been convicted of any offence under this Act; or
(k)
if he refuses or fails to comply with any order of the Board made under subsection (2)(a).
(2) The Board may, in any case in which it considers that no cause of sufficient gravity for cancellation of registration or suspension from practice exists —
(a)
by order impose on the professional engineer a penalty not exceeding $10,000; or
(b)
by writing under the hand of the President censure the professional engineer.
(3) The Board shall not exercise its powers under subsection (1) or (2) unless an opportunity of being heard either personally or by counsel has been given to the professional engineer against whom the Board intends to exercise its powers.
(4) Every penalty imposed by the Board under subsection (2) shall be recoverable as a debt due to the Board.
(5) While any order of suspension from practice made under this Act remains in force, the person concerned shall not for the purposes of this Act be regarded as having in force a practising certificate but forthwith on the expiry or annulment of such order, his privileges under this Act shall be revived as from the date of expiry or annulment.
(6) An order of cancellation of registration or suspension from practice or an order under subsection (2) shall take effect the day immediately after the Board has by post served the order on the person concerned unless the Board or, where the person concerned gives due notice of appeal to the High Court, the Board or High Court orders otherwise.
(7) For the purposes of subsection (1)(i), a registered professional engineer shall not be deemed to have taken reasonable steps to prevent the doing of any act by a corporation or partnership unless he satisfies the Board that —
(a)
the act was done without his knowledge;
(b)
he was not in a position to influence the conduct of the corporation or partnership in relation to its action; or
(c)
he, being in such a position, exercised all due diligence to prevent the corporation or partnership from so acting.
(8) In this section, references to acts done by a corporation or partnership include references to omissions to act and to a series of acts or omissions to act.