PROVIDENCE — State Rep. Charlene Lima chairs a special legislative commission that aims to tighten up the construction industry in Rhode Island so that unscrupulous contractors don’t give the building industry a bad name.

Right now, anyone can “walk out of the ACI and register as a contractor,” says George Whalen, a member of the commission who serves as executive director of the Contractors’ Registration and Licensing Board. The name of the board was recently amended to encompass the prospect that the state might one day license contractors.

The existing law requires contractors to register with the state, but there are no prerequisites to registration except for carrying liability and worker’s compensation insurance.

Lima said the study group — the Special House Commission to Examine the Issue of Licensing Builders and Contractors — has another year to make its final report.

In the last two years, it has recommended numerous legislative changes, since adopted by the General Assembly, that are intended to make it more difficult for fly-by-night contractors to operate.

But so far, licensing standards have been an elusive goal.

Lima said the commission has focused during the current session on legislation intended to close a loophole in the law that allows a contractor whose registration has been revoked to operate under the cover of someone else’s registration.

Lima has introduced a bill that would impose a $10,000 fine on anyone who registers as a contractor solely as a front for someone else, although she acknowledged that the language of that legislation needs fine-tuning.

The bill was crafted to address a particular contractor who had set up his girlfriend in business and had a “long history of ripping people off,” Lima said.

The commission hasn’t had as much time as it would have liked this year to discuss the mechanic’s lien law, she said.

Roger Warren, executive director of the Rhode Island Builders Association, is one of the commission members.

He said the building industry supports Lima’s so-called “scofflaw provision.”

“We want to clean up Rhode Island as best we can, because these kinds of people affect our members,” he said.

“We support increasing their enforcement capabilities,” Warren said, referring to the Contractors’ Registration and Licensing Board.

Whalen referred consumers to information about their rights posted on the board’s Web site at http://www.crb.ri.gov/default.php.