The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Surveyors

  • Surveyors fault asset declaration without certified valuation

    Surveyors fault asset declaration without certified valuation

    • Seek liberalisation in land acquisition 

    Surveyors have faulted assets declaration by public officers without the input of professional estate valuers.

    Former President, Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors & Valuers (NIESV) and Principal Partner, Bode Adediji Partnership, Mr. Bode Adediji said without a surveyor, it would be impossible to confirm the authenticity of asset declared as they are trained on asset valuation.

    Adediji urged the government to come up with a policy that will liberalise land acquisition lamenting that cost of land in the country remains the highest in Africa with poor mortgage facility.

    He faulted the idea of public officers just going to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to declare their assets without a professional valuing their worth.

    He said: “Corruption can only be checked in public service when there is a professional input that will not only ensure that people declare what they have on entering office but also at the expiration of their tenure. All asset declaration by political office holders should be accompanied by certified valuation report in order to forestall anticipatory declarations which often give room for corruption”

    The current practice where public officials fill out the asset declaration form without evidence of proper valuation or certification by approved valuers was defeatist and capable of breeding corruption as politicians often declared what they have in vacuum, he added.

    Adediji said politicians could simply declare what they don’t currently have in anticipation of getting those things while in office. According to him any asset declaration form not authenticated by an estate surveyor and valuer should not be admitted in evidence, adding that the CCB should involve surveyors whose major responsibility is asset valuation.

    He said government cannot adequately deal with the security challenges in the country without adequately dealing with bridging existing deficit in housing in the counrty.

    “Our economy has been charecterised by a cash and carry; Ghana, South Africa and Tanzania have more viable and virile mortgage institution. It is instructive to note that we may not be able to fight insecurity and corruption without a robust housing programme,” he said.

     

     

    Chairman, Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON), William Odudu said when public officers declare assets without certification from valuers, it makes the exercise not to be strictly dependable.

    Assets had to be documented, verified and valuated before they are declared, he said, adding that the CCB had the duty to invite estate surveyors and valuers as they are statutorily and professionally qualified to do the verification and valuation of those assets.

    He said: “As a rule, the CCB should, after receiving assets from a public officer, his wife and children, not just the man alone, appoint a surveyor to valuate those assets. The declaration is not enough; there should be verification and valuation.”

    According to him, asset valuation has the benefit of helping to check corrupt practices by politicians, stressing that the features, location and value of an asset needed to be established.

  • Embrace entrepreneurship, surveyors told

    Embrace entrepreneurship, surveyors told

    The three-day national workshop organised by the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) has ended in Kano, Kano State, with the body urging its members to learn the act of entrepreneuership. The theme of the workshop was “The Professional as an Entreprence.” The workshop, according to its organisers, was held with a view to providing an avenue for enlightening the professional Quantity Surveyor on the need to embrace entrepreneurial development, digitisation and professionalism. Besides, the workshop was to further equip the Quantity Surveyor for the future growth and sustenance of the profession.

    At the workshop, the various speakers and other stakeholders noted that there is a dearth of professionals in various sectors of the Nigerian economy and the previous model of single-shop owner is no longer sustainable. Hence, it was observed, there is the need to expand, integrate, innovate and diversify in order to promote the profession.

    The theme of the workshop was further broken down to sub-themes which were addressed in the form of paper presentations, viz: entrepreneurship; professionalism, and digitalisation. At the end of the workshop, four syndicate sessions were held and the observations made by the participants.

    At the end of the workshop, several recommendations were made to improve the practice of the profession. For instance, for the individual professional, there is a need to embrace digitalisation, explore the use of MS Excel in the preparation of Bills of Quantities and other contract documents, as this can greatly reduce the burden on the QS by eliminating boring and routine tasks. Besides, it was also recommended that Nigerian QS can achieve partnerships with foreign firms with deep expertise in highly relevant areas such as new methods of project cost benchmarking, public-private partnership (PPP) concept in infrastructure development.

    Importantly, it recommended that since the current level of entrepreneurial skills within QS practice in Nigeria is shallow and needs to be deepened, practitioners in the country must appreciate the need to act more as entrepreneurs and learn what entrepreneurship is all about.

    “For the QS interested in entrepreneurial development there are important things to consider: the preparation of a business plan, consideration of the external environment where the business will be reviewed and other institutions within the external environment. There is a wide range of potential projects open to the forward thinking QS interested in entrepreneurial development in the areas of Transportation, Energy, Oil & Gas, ICT and Social Infrastructure among others. Quantity Surveyors are enjoined to take advantage of the opportunities available in entrepreneurial development and to keep abreast with the latest developments in the business,” the communique at the end of the workshop read.

    Stakeholders at the forum also recommended mergers and acquisition for practitioners and their firms as this is a viable means for survival and growth of professional firms. It charged practitioners to de-emphasise individualism and seek to provide avenue for tutelage of younger professionals, as the best recipe for practical survival and growth of professional firms is competence, integrity and honesty.

    “To avoid mistakes, overcome problems and become successful and achieve sustainable growth, the Quantity Surveyor requires knowledge of business practice, accounting principles, national economic conditions and expertise in the building process,” NIQS said in its communique.

    For the NIQS and/or other organisations, it further recommended that there is need to create higher levels of membership or distinction for firms requiring greater investment in knowledge, diversification , internationalisa-tion and staff quality/training that can create incentive to invest.

     

     

     

    Stakeholders urged the institution to be actively involved in identifying software and carry out mandatory training workshops for its members; and also identify members who are knowledgeable in the Institute so they could serve as resource persons for training and possible development of QS-dedicated software.

    “The curriculum content of higher institutions offering Quantity Surveying should be reviewed to include intensive ICT training and use of software in QS practice. In addition, there may be need to train the academic staff in Institutions to become ICT compliant where this is necessary and to support the provision of software and hardware to higher institutions,” the communique ended.

  • Minister urges surveyors to embrace entrepreneurship

    Minister urges surveyors to embrace entrepreneurship

    Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Akon Etim Eyakenyi has urged  quantity surveyors in the country to brace up to the growing challenges of the profession.

    She said these challenges could only be addressed when surveyors’ embrace entrepreneurial revolution that meets with the global best practices.

    Represented by a Federal Controller in the Ministry, Mr. Abdulyekini Akara,  at Kano Federal Secretariat, she said there was  need for quantity surveyors to diversify beyond the professional firms.

    She spoke at a workshop organsied by the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) in collaboration with the Kano State government with The Professional As An Entrepreneur as its theme.

    She said: “The professional should begin to see himself as a business man, particularly in contemporary times of huge commercialisation.

    “He needs to free himself from every confinement of past tendencies and leverage into the new spirit of entrepreneurship. The drive for new spirit of entrepreneurship forms the bedrock of success stories in today’s business concerns.

    “The quest for new skills and competencies in management of business in the corporate world calls for total transformation of professional practices for sustainability.”

  • Women surveyors counsel pupils

    In what seemed a mission to “catch them young”, female surveyors in Rivers State embarked on an enlightenment programme to educate the pupils of Holy Rosary Girls College, Port Harcourt on the importance of surveying.

    The female surveyors who are members of Women-In-Surveying (WIS), Rivers State chapter said that surveying is a lucrative course.

    Delivering a career talk to about 115 science pupils of the college, the Rivers State Coordinator of WIS, Mrs Amina Dienye, said: “Surveying is the first profession that God manifested after creation, because He had to distinctly position everything such as the sea, land and sky in well-defined positions.”

    Dienye also said no development project could occur without a surveyor since the positions of all items of structures must be clearly marked out.

    She also said the financial rewards of surveying would help them support their husbands and families meaningfully in future.

    Making their own contributions, a Chartered Surveyor, Mrs Abiola Madeparum; as well as Sally Akinrinola and Itekenah Akpanah recalled how they made their incursion into surveying.  They all said they were “grateful for being practitioners of such a worthy profession”.

    However, they urged the girls to work hard if they finally chose to read surveying.

    In a vote of thanks on behalf of the pupils, Miss Ruth Lawrence expressed gratitude and hope that the career talk would aid some of them to choose to be surveyors.

  • Court nullifies surveyors’ expulsion

    Court nullifies surveyors’ expulsion

    THE Federal High Court, Kaduna, has nullified the expulsion of Mr. Emmanuel Osita Okoli as a member of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV). Justice Evelyn Anyadike held that Okoli and Mr. Daramola Olutoye could only be expelled by NIESV Council and not by its Annual General Meeting (AGM).

    She was delivering judgment on a suit brought by Okoli, Mrs. Cecilia Bola Okoli and Olutoye, against  registered trustees of NIESV, Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria, Mr. Bode Adediji and Mr. Rowland Abonta.

    The plaintiffs were members of the NIESV until March 12, 2011, when Okoli and Olutoye were expelled at the AGM of NIESV. Before the action, Olutoye had sued Adediji at the Magistrate and High Courts, but Okoli was not a party to the matter.

    At NIESV’s AGM on March 12, 2011, one Samuel Ukpong was said to have moved a motion seeking to expel Okoli and Olutoye because they filed several suits against the institution.The men were allegedly not given the opportunity to defend themselves, paving the way for their expulsion.

    The plaintiffs sought these reliefs: A declaration that the purported expulsion of Okoli and Olutoye is null and void; a declaration that the NIESV’s AGM acted in excess of its constitutional power when it purported to expel the duo; a declaration that only NIESV’s council is empowered by the constitution of the institution to discipline and/or expel members of the institution; a declaration that the motion moved by Ukpong for the expulsion of Okoli and Olutoye not having been brought within the contemplation of NIESV is null and void and could not have been the basis for the expulsion from the institution of the first and third Plaintiffs; a declaration that the failure of the AGM of NIESV to afford the first and Third Plaintiffs the opportunity to be heard before their expulsion from the institution goes contrary to the spirit of the constitution of the institution and the right of the first and third plaintiffs to fair hearing guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution; a declaration that the act of the defendants of ordering the closure of the premises of business of the first and second plaintiffs wherein the second plaintiff was never expelled or suspended by the institution for any act whatsoever is a gross violation of the his right to practice as an Estate Surveyor and is hence null and void.

    They also sought an order setting aside their purported expulsion; an order restraining the surveyors board from withdrawing their licence as estate surveyors and valuers and/or closing down their offices.

    In her judgment, Hon. Justice  Anyadike noted that the disciplinary power of NIESV is vested in its council, adding that its AGM does not have the power to investigate and/or penalise any member for professional misconduct. Even if the AGM has such power, she held, the procedure followed by them in Okoli and Olukoye’s expulsion is not in the spirit of its constitution.

    Justice Anyadike lampooned the defence counsel for “acting in concert to frustrate the hearing of this case from inception till now … no wonder they refused to file any written addresses because honestly they have nothing to canvass.” NIESV’s AGM acted in excess of its constitutional powers in expelling Okoli and Olutoye, adding that only the council of NIESV is empowered to discipline and/or expel members.

    The purported expulsion of Okoli and Olutoye from the institution, she declared, is null and void because due process was not followed.

     

  • Surveyors seek government’s recognition to foster housing development

    Mr Daniel Shaphant, the Chairman of the Nigeria Institute of Estate Surveyors in Taraba, over the weekend urged the government to recognise the contributions of surveyors and valuers in land administration to foster housing development.

    Shaphant said this while fielding questions from newsmen in Jalingo.

    The chairman said the failure of some state governments to include at least two surveyors and valuers in the Land Use Allocation Committee as required by law was one of the reasons for compensation problems on land across the country.

    “Land Use Decree No. 24(3a) of 1978 makes it mandatory for surveyors and valuers to be part of the land use allocation committee.

    “Unfortunately, the valuation carried out by valuers are often ignored by government, while arbitrary adjustments done by the Due Process Office are regarded as appropriate,” he said.

    Shaphant said the Chief Land Officer, Director of Land Services and the Land Use Allocation Committee were the only statutory bodies authorised to determine compensation on land.

    He, however, lamented that people were not educated on their right in this regard and appealed to government to formulate polices to address the shortfall in the housing sector.

  • How to beat quacks

    A state Surveyors and Valuers have been urged to go for continuous training to have an edge over charlatans.

    President of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) Mr. Emeka Eleh said such trainings and re-trainings would expose them.

    Eneh, who spoke at the Lagos Chapter of the NIESV’s Mandatory Continuing Professional Development (MCPD), held at the Civic Centre, Lagos, said the trend of losing their jobs to quacks and others not qualified and certified was gaining ground, reminding members that they are a major stakeholders in Real Estate Development in Nigeria. He was the Special Guest of Honour at the event.

    He said acquiring knowledge, skills and new ideas were pivotal to attaining success in their practice, hence the topic for discourse was said to be apt and appropriate.

    He said: “I see a trend of decline fortune of our profession.  When I left school, members of the profession then were managing virtually all the tall buildings in the country.  At present, the project, property management field of our profession is being taken over by other professionals.

  • Students, Surveyors hail UNIBEN VC

    Nigeria Institute of Surveyors, Edo State branch and Esan Students Association have commended Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, Prof. Osayuki Oshodin, for leading the fight against sexual harassment and corruption among lecturers.

    Both bodies urged the VC to continue the fight against such social vices until they are eliminated in the institution.

    They spoke separately during a courtesy call on the VC.

    The students under the auspices of Esan Students Association passed a vote of confidence on the leadership style of Prof. Oshodin.

    President of the body, Sunday Ogun said there was a big difference between the administration of Oshodin and previous administrations.

    The chairman of NIS, Eromosele Iria Oboh, expressed the body’s readiness to partner with the university to develop the newly created department of geomatics.

    He stated that establishment of the Geomatics department in the university has been their dreams.

     

  • Surveyors transit to new world geodetic system

    Stakeholders and groups, including community associations, trade groups and government officials will this week begin the validation of Urban Profiles prepared in nine cities in Osun State.

    The N100 million Structure Plans Project is funded by the state government in partnership with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat).

    The Osun Structure Plans Project, which kicked off in July last year, seeks to develop and adopt Structure Plans that will guide the growth, development and management of the participating cities over the next 20 years.

    The participating cities, grouped into three clusters of three cities each are: Osogbo, Ikirun, Ila Orangun (Cluster 1), Ilesha. Ile-Ife, Ede (Cluster 2) and Iwo, Ejgbo and Ikire (Cluster 3).

    Structure Plans are planning instruments that will guiding the growth of these towns for the next 20 years and, specifically, make significant contributions towards achieving the goals of the state’s six-point Integral Action Plan, the various Local Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies (LEEDS), the HABITAT Agenda and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

    The project, according to a statement, involves use of the Rapid Urban Sector Profiling for Sustainability (RUSPS) methodology, which establishes a sustainable, participatory, long-term framework for the orderly physical, economic and social development of the city.

    The RUSPS methodology, based on ‘Guidelines for Sustainable Urban Development’ designed by the European Commission and UN-Habitat, seeks to reduce urban poverty through policy development and assessment of needs and responses for urban institutions.

    “One of the major challenges facing urban centres is lack of information and accurate statistics that could be used when planning development. This is one of the issues we want to address. The successful implementation of the process would help town planners prioritise their needs and put their resources into the places they ought to be,” said Dr. Alioune Badiane, Director, Projects’ Office at the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement in Osogbo.

    In all, 13 consultants, comprising specialists in urban planning and local economic development; urban environment and infrastructure; governance, gender and anthropology, as well as urban services and transportation were commissioned to work on the project under the coordination of a chief technical adviser.

    According to Commissioner for Lands, Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr Muyiwa Ige, the project is a follow up to an Urban Renewal Scheme involving the upgrading of a two-kilometre radius from the city centre in the nine cities.

    “We are determined to transform our cities into functional settlements that will match our expectations as a state of excellence,” Mr Ige said.

    The consultations begin today at Ilesa, to be followed by Ile Ife and Ede on July 11.

    Others will follow at Iwo (July 15), Ejigbo (July 16) and Ikire (July 17), while consultations for the final cluster will hold at Ikirun (July 22), Ila (July 23) and Osogbo (July 24).

  • Surveyors seek incentives for housing

    THE Federal Government has been asked to fashion out policies and incentives that will encourage housing production to bridge the widening gap in the sector.

    Chairman, Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors &Valuers (NIESV), Lagos branch, Mr Shola  Fatoki, told The Nation that the govrnment should address infrastructure, such as roads, potable water and electricity to encourage developers and release up funds to build more houses.

    He canvassed a deliberate policy to encourage the use of local building materials, adding that most of the researched local building materials have been left on the shelf of the research institutes, unused by either the government or individuals.

    Also, the President of the body, Emeka Eleh, urged the government to address leakages in the sector to create employment in the sector.

    He noted that if players in the sector were encouraged by some policies the huge youth unemployment figure could be reduced as an average of 70 people is needed to build a three bedroom house.