I created a topic earlier that reported a bug about explosive specialists:
issue 0005105
The Dev posted this and resolved the issue:

This feature is described as follows:

Normal units:

• explode on mines no matter if they have detected the mine or not, no matter how they approach the mine
• can use mine detector (a special item) to detect nearby mines automatically
• can detect mines by their sight on some terrain and light conditions, this detection ability is variable along unit types and exact conditions of the mission
• cannot deactivate detected mines

Explosive specialists:

• they detect automatically mines with mine detectors (item in their bags)
• explosive specialist dont detonate a mine if:

a) they know about it (detection by mine detector or by a unit)
b) they crawl in the activation range of the mine's trigger

• expl. specialists deactivate mines if they have toolkit item in their inventory

These are design decisions and mechanics present in the game. So it is not bug but a proposal for change of the functionality.

TODO: I challenge you to convince me that the current system is unacceptable ;)

I think that they should not get special privileges. If they spot the mine, then ok, they live. but if they don't have a mine detector,they should die like everyone else.