15/08/2026
©Engr. WOII
MY REPLY TO SOMEONE WHO CALLED SITE ENGINEERS THIEVES.
Before You Call All Site Engineers Thieves, Understand How Construction Contracts Actually Work
( Long post)
I read a post where someone said that nearly all site engineers in Nigeria are thieves.
All of them.
Honestly, sometimes I wonder how people can make such sweeping statements about a profession they barely understand.
If you have worked with a few bad professionals, deal with those individuals. Don’t use their behaviour to condemn an entire profession.
And this is exactly why I keep saying that construction practical knowledge is not only about knowing how to supervise block setting , reinforcement reinforcement preparation and placement or how to pour concrete.
When I tell young engineers to go under tutelage, I am not talking about practical work alone.
You need to understand your profession, your responsibilities, contract administration, procurement, supervision and how construction projects are actually executed.
Let me break something down.
There are different ways construction projects are commonly contracted and managed.
1. Full construction contract
The client and contractor agree on the cost of the project, often based on a BOQ, scope of work and specifications.
For example:
“This four-bedroom duplex will cost ₦150 million.”
The professional contractor will be responsible for materials, labour, plant, equipment, supervision and ex*****on, depending on the contract.
The contractor is responsible for delivering the agreed scope.
2. Labour-and-material arrangement
Here, the client purchases or provides the materials, while the contractor provides labour and may handle supervision and ex*****on.
The responsibilities must be clearly defined from the beginning.
3. Supervision/consultancy arrangement
This is where the client engages an engineer or consultant primarily to supervise and monitor the work.
The engineer may visit periodically, attend site meetings, inspect workmanship, check materials, verify dimensions and levels, review compliance with drawings and specifications, and report to the client.
Or, depending on the agreement, the engineer may have a more continuous site presence.
These are not the same arrangement.
This is where many people get confused.
If I am engaged strictly as the client’s supervising engineer, I have no business going to the market to buy your cement, reinforcement, blocks, timber or other materials for you.
Why?
Because I am supposed to independently inspect and verify what is being supplied and used.
My preferred method is simple.
If you need timber for formwork, for example, call the supplier to site.
Tell him exactly what you require.
Give him the required dimensions, specification and quality.
Let him bring a sample.
I inspect the sample.
If it meets the requirement, I approve it.
Leave that sample in the site office as the reference sample.
If the supplier later brings material below that standard, it goes back.
The supplier can negotiate his price directly with the client.
My responsibility is to ensure that what comes to site meets the required specification.
That protects everybody.
Client.
Engineer.
Contractor.
Supplier.
And most importantly, the project.
My boss used to tell us something that stayed with me:
An engineer who is always excited about going to the market for materials will definitely be called thief or put himself in a compromising position.
Whether the engineer is actually stealing or not is another matter.
The problem is perception, conflict of interest and loss of professional independence.
Construction is one sector where people can suspect you very quickly.Nobody trust you on construction street
So why put yourself in a position where the client starts asking:
“How much did you buy it?”
“Who supplied it?”
“Why is this price different?”
“Did you get your commission?”
Even if your hands are clean, the arrangement can create unnecessary suspicion.
And here is another thing people don’t understand.
Sometimes a client says:
“Let me buy the materials myself. It will be cheaper.”
Yes, it can be cheaper.
But cheaper does not automatically mean better.
A supplier can give you a cheaper material because you don’t know what you are looking at.
You may think you have negotiated well because you saved ₦50,000.
Meanwhile, you have bought an inferior product that will cost you millions later.
And workmanship is another serious issue.
You can have two bricklayers working at completely different levels.
One person may charge ₦150 per block.
Another may charge ₦200.
You ask:
“Why should I pay the engineer’s bricklayer ₦200 when I can get somebody for ₦150?”
Because you are not necessarily buying the same workmanship.
The experienced bricklayer working under strict supervision may spend considerably more time achieving the required line, level, plumb, alignment, joint thickness and dimensional accuracy.
The cheaper worker may simply be trying to maximize the number of blocks laid.
So don’t compare price alone.
Compare output, specification, workmanship and productivity.
If you want to negotiate with your workers, negotiate.
But don’t expect an engineer to compromise professional standards because you negotiated a cheap labour rate with somebody.
Let me tell you a real experience.
A friend of mine wanted to build a house for his mother in his hometown.
I happened to have a project close to the area, so he asked me to occasionally supervise the work.
I agreed.
On the day of setting out, they called me that he was around and asked me to come over.
I went there.
He introduced me to the bricklayer:
“This is my friend, an engineer. He will come occasionally to check the work.”
The bricklayer immediately told his boys to pack their tools.
I was surprised.
I asked what happened.
He said something very interesting.
When they negotiated the work, they were not told that an engineer would be supervising them.
According to him, once an engineer became involved, work that they planned to complete in two or three days could take much longer because the engineer would insist on proper setting out, line, level, plumb, dimensions and corrections.
His argument was that their negotiated money might no longer make sense.
And honestly, I understood his point.
That is exactly what professional supervision is supposed to do.
It is supposed to catch things that would otherwise be hidden.
Some things that a client may overlook, an experienced engineer will reject.
A wrong level.
A bad alignment.
Poor compaction.
Insufficient cover.
Wrong reinforcement placement.
Improper lap.
Poor blockwork.
Bad formwork.
Incorrect dimensions.
Substandard materials.
And so on.
That is why engineering supervision has value.
So when somebody comes online and says:
“All site engineers in Nigeria are thieves.”
My question is simple:
How many site engineers have you actually worked with?
And what type of engineers?
Did you verify their qualifications?
Did you check their experience?
Did you clearly define their scope?
Did you agree on their professional fee?
Did you give them the authority to do their job?
Did you hire an experienced engineer or simply look for the cheapest person available?
Because some clients will look for a young engineer with little experience and offer him less than ₦100,000 for an entire year of professional responsibility.
Then when things go wrong, they say:
“Engineers are useless.”
What exactly did you expect?
Professional service has a value.
Experience has a value.
Time has a value.
Independent supervision has a value.
And accountability has a value.
If you want a professional to protect your project, pay for professional supervision and give that professional the authority to supervise.
If the engineer is stealing, document it, confront it and report it.
If the contractor is stealing, deal with the contractor.
If the supplier is cheating, deal with the supplier.
But don’t take the misconduct of some individuals and use it to condemn an entire profession.
And to the young engineers:
Learn the rudiments.
Understand construction contracts.
Understand procurement.
Understand BOQ.
Understand labour-only contracts.
Understand material-and-labour arrangements.
Understand supervision.
Understand site reporting.
Understand quality control.
Understand what belongs to you professionally and what does not.
And when you are new in construction, learn before you start making loud pronouncements about things you don’t understand.
There is nothing wrong with being a beginner.
The problem is being a beginner who refuses to learn.
Construction will humble you very quickly if you don’t understand what you are doing.
