Civil Defence to ensure highest standards of security and safety

The General Directorate of Civil Defence at the Ministry of Interior affirmed its keenness to ensure security and safety in all projects in accordance with the highest international standards in order to provide a safer environment and save lives and property.During the annual meeting of the consultancy offices held yesterday, Director General of the Civil Defence Brigadier Hamad Othman al-Duhaimi, said that the Department is working to develop the relationship of all parties concerned and the development of the work mechanism in order to facilitate and speed up the performance and quality assurance in various procedures.He added that the Civil Defence strives to achieve two main objectives of the development of the work mechanism, namely to provide security and safety requirements in all facilities and projects adhering to the highest standards, and to overcome difficulties.This annual meeting discusses the most important developments that will help to provide a safe and risk-free environment, Brigadier al-Duhaimi said, noting that the consultancy offices are partners of the civil defence in an integrated system aiming to maintain the security and safety of facilities in Qatar.For his part, Nasser al-Taweel, Adviser to the Minister of Finance, discussed the indicators of international reports regarding the business environment and building permits in order to reduce the procedures related to these licences. He said: “The indicators we seek to achieve measure four things: time, cost, procedures and quality”.Al-Taweel said that Qatar has achieved very good levels in three indicators, namely time, cost and quality, and it is working to achieve progress in the fourth indicator, which is procedures. He also pointed out that the Civil Defence Department, in co-operation with the authorities concerned in the country, seeks to reduce the procedures and integrate some procedural steps in order to improve this indicator.In turn, Officer of Engineering Plans Section at the Department of Prevention at the Civil Defence, Lt Abdulrahman Sultan al-Ghanim, pointed to the third stage of developing building permits system related to the work of the consultancy offices. He explained that the General Directorate of Civil Defence seeks to familiarise these offices with some amendments, including those to the certificate of completion of construction, such as adding service agencies that have examined the building to make sure that the requirements are met.He also pointed to the introduction of the process of modifications, transactions in the civil defence services (amendments in the civil defence systems) which do not affect the building approvals, including the obligation of the consultancy offices to provide a declaration of the opening of the application so that it recognises the required amendments do not affect the building approvals or approvals of other parties.