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Board highlights rise in substandard engineering and surveying work, discusses digital-seal security
Summary
Board members and staff flagged continued instances of substandard engineering and surveying work and discussed technical and ethical responses, including updated enforcement audits, a proposed technical work group for surveying, and exploration of stronger digital-signature/certificate solutions to prevent seal theft or spoofing.
Board members and staff spent substantial time discussing enforcement trends and technical vulnerabilities tied to electronic sealing and signatures.
The board chair opened the meeting by urging licensees to report substandard work, saying it is the duty of registered professionals to notify staff so the board can "help them and guide them to the right direction." Compliance staff later summarized caseloads for the fiscal year: 507 new cases received and 460 closed, with about 252 active cases at the August 31 snapshot; September's throughput reduced pending cases to roughly 237. Staff said they will bring several solo hearings and consent/board orders forward in coming months.
Multiple board members and staff recounted examples of problematic practices: absent review by supervising licensees, electronic stamps copied into documents without personal review, and instances where subcontractors or others used a licensee's digital signature without knowledge. One board member described an informal settlement conference in which a surveyor's digital seal had been used without the surveyor's knowledge. Enforcement staff said continuing-education audits have increased and that a small uptick in reported unlicensed practice merits monitoring.
On technical remedies, participants discussed digital certificates and non-repudiation devices (PIN-protected signature tokens) as ways to authenticate who applied a seal; national coordination through NCEES committees was cited as a channel to consider broader fixes. Staff said the issue is both cultural and technical: ethics training and clearer practice standards help, but better authentication systems would address spoofing and international misuse.
Why it matters: Substandard work and forged/seized seals can cause costly errors, create liability for licensees, and threaten public trust. Board members emphasized a two-track approach: stepped-up education and audits plus longer-term technical fixes to digital authentication.
What happens next: Enforcement staff plans to present updated criminal-history guidance and related policy changes to the board in February and to convene technical work groups for surveying rule clarifications; NCEES and local partners will continue to examine secure digital-seal solutions.
