PROPERTY NEWS

Professional regulatory bodies in the construction industry will soon be accommodated under a single roof, courtesy of a gesture by the Federal Ministry of Works, Housing & Urban Development. But government may be courting trouble as not all are invited.

Listing achievements in recent years, ministry officials disclosed last week that architectural and engineering services drawings for the planned 15-storey edifice were nearing completion. The construction of the complex, they added, would take off as soon as funds were made available. The structure will be located at Zhidu Village, near Piwoyi, along the Airport Road.

The project, which is listed under the ministry’s housing sector and architectural services sub-sector, will house bodies such as the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON), Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON), Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Council of Nigeria (ESVARBON), Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria (QSRBN) and Town Planners Registration Council of Nigeria (TOPREC).

Curiously, two organisations were excluded from the list. They include the Surveyors’ Council of Nigeria (SURCON) and Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).

The development looks to be in line with a recent reversal of the Federal Government policy on professional bodies in the country. Traditionally and in the keeping with the notion that they were susceptible to being influenced in the course of their duty, the government made yearly budgetary provisions for their general upkeep.

But suddenly, in what looks like a policy summersault, government argued that the cost of maintaining the regulatory bodies was too enormous for it to bear, and that they (the professional organisations) needed to look inwards, be innovative and generate funds to pay staff salary and meet other sundry expenses.

Consequently, the cash-strapped bodies were stranded and, to keep heads above water, did look for ways to generate funds: basically from raising examination and induction/graduation rates/fees as well as collaborating with sister bodies on professional development and related programmes.

According to industry watchers, the development made the bodies vulnerable and needed to be reconsidered.

Nevertheless, land surveyors and engineers have been commenting on the perceived exclusion of SURCON and COREN from the list of occupiers of the new multi-storey complex.

President of the Nigerian Institution of Surveyors (NIS), Dr. Sola Atilola, said that, besides the fact that it might have been an unintended omission on the part of ministry officials, it was possible that the two bodies had their own buildings already.

According to him, SURCON occupied a rented property it intended to fully own in Garki. He claimed he had no details of the planned project.

Similarly, COREN officials claimed ignorance of the project as well as the body’s exclusion from the list of potential occupiers of the building. They said that COREN currently occupied a property at Gwarinpa and even nursed plans to move to a new, permanent one at Wuse Zone 4.

Besides the 15-storey edifice, the ministry stated that out of the 12 Federal Secretariat buildings planned for rehabilitation nationwide, four - at Asaba, Benin City, Ilorin and Kano - have been completed, while that of Yobe was still in progress.

The ministry is also building a school of architectural technician scheme at Kuje, Abuja.