At a Cabinet meeting on March 4 of this year, amendments to the regulations on the Assessment of Construction Specialists' Competence and the Supervision of Independent Practice were approved, significantly reducing the administrative burden, promoting competition, and thus ensuring the provision of higher-quality services.

From now on, construction experts will no longer be required to fulfill the minimum independent practice and professional development requirements twice. Instead, they will only need to meet these requirements in their primary field of activity or area of operation. Meanwhile, the State Construction Control Bureau will conduct in-depth inspections, review complaints, and make decisions regarding changes to the primary activity status of construction experts. Additionally, in-depth inspections will now cover 1% of all construction specialists rather than 1% in each area of operation. This change allows the competence assessment authority to focus more on problematic areas where complaints are more frequent.

The competence of construction specialists in the field of bridges has been expanded to include similar structures from the fields of port and marine hydraulic structures as well as hydraulic structures. This means that quay walls with various types of shoreline reinforcements and inland waterway piers of the estacade type will now be included in the scope of bridge specialists, covering design, project and construction expertise, construction work management, and construction supervision.

The amendments to the Cabinet regulations also introduce a statute of limitations for disciplinary proceedings against construction specialists. Competence assessment institutions will no longer review complaints about violations committed more than 10 years before the complaint was submitted. Since the construction process is lengthy and errors in earlier stages are often only discovered during construction or operation, complaints and disciplinary cases may arise concerning violations that occurred several years prior to their reporting. Therefore, an adequately long period has been established to allow errors made by project designers to be identified during the operation phase. The introduction of a statute of limitations for complaints was necessary, as it would be unreasonable to review disciplinary cases for very old violations. Over time, the competence and actions of a construction specialist may have changed, meaning that penalties would no longer serve their intended purpose.

At the same time, the fee for the initial assessment of a construction specialist's competence has been increased from €150 to €250. Additionally, a fee of €130 will be introduced for repeat competence assessments, which will apply if the candidate fails the competence test on the first attempt. However, the annual supervision fee will not be applied to individuals with an architect’s practice certificate or a construction practice certificate for the period during which they perform the duties of a construction inspector and do not engage in independent practice.

Ministry of Economics
Public Relations Department
prese@em.gov.lv