PROPERTY NEWS

Nigerian engineers, under the auspices of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and the Association of Consulting Engineers of Nigeria, on Thursday in Lagos, gathered to deliberate on how corruption in project execution involving engineers would be alleviated.

A report by the United Nations has emerged showing that an approximated $500bn is being lost globally to corruption in the provision of infrastructure by governments.

Making reference to a recent United Nations report, which showed that nations were losing a whopping $500bn annually to corruption emanating from infrastructural project provisions globally, the Registrar of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, Mr. Felix Atume, said involvement of engineers in corruption with politicians was causing more harm than the monetary value estimated by the UN.

Atume, who spoke on corruption and ethics in the engineering profession at the forum noted that a lot of lives had been lost due to shortage of medical facilities, such as hospitals and portable water, all of which were services provided by engineers.

He explained that it could not be possible for politicians to steal government fund via infrastructural projects without an engineer‘s signature, which must always appear on such projects.

He said, "The United Nations forecast in 1998 that about 80 per cent of infrastructural spending would be in developing countries. This is exactly true in the case of Nigeria where over 80 per cent of the national budgets in the three tiers of government is being spent on infrastructure.

"This loss amounts to five per cent of the world economy and does not include human loss. A lot of lives have been lost in this country as a result of lack of medical facilities, hospitals, water supply, which had made people to die from preventable diseases."

While noting that Nigeria would have been a better country if the entire fund was being channelled into its original respective places, Atume lamented that despite the contributions of engineering to humanity, the profession remained the most culpable in aiding corruption in developing nations.

"We must take this profession away from people, who do not have any business with it," he said.

The NSE President, Mr. Olumuyiwa Ajibola, said there was no better time to "delete corruption from the profession than now."

He said, "Corruption is preventing many people from accessing what belongs to them and making poverty wax stronger. If we can hold our own in a world that is drifting to the sea, we can stop the drift. We want Nigerian engineers to know everything they need to know in order to be able to stand on our feet and take what belongs to us."

In his submission, the ACEN President, Mr. Ibikunle Ogunbayo, said the determination to operate above corruption went beyond engineers‘ dealings in projects, but would make them relate with fellow practitioners in good faith.