Group tasks government on funding, faults valuation contract

Incapacitated to deliver on its mandate, the Estate Surveyors and Valuation Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON), has requested the Federal Government to fund its programmes.

Incapacitated to deliver on its mandate, the Estate Surveyors and Valuation Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON), has requested the Federal Government to fund its programmes.

The board said the funding has become necessary as the lack of it has long constituted a threat to the professional body to develop the sector.

Also, the board criticised the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), over an allegation of contracting a huge valuation jobs to a non-registered firm. Newly inaugurated chairman of the group, Olayinka Sonaike, who spoke with select journalists in Lagos, said ESVARBON would like to accomplish much like the expansion of its operational base, engaging more staff and equipping new offices, but it was incapacitated by lack of funding.

He said it was wrong for FIRS to award such job to a “quack,” saying such act will continue to have adverse effects on the nation, and therefore, called for a review of the contract.

Sonaike said he had personally appealed to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, to consider the appeal and aid realtors to function optimally, affirming that he will pursue expansion of operational offices.

“There is no going back on that programme. Let me confirm to you that some of those offices are already functioning now. We have an office at Ibadan; the one at Enugu is set but yet to take off.

“This board will continue with that policy. The focus is to reach the common man on the street.  If we concentrate everything in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, how many people can travel to such locations with ease?

“However, we have constraints. Basically, the board is an agency of government and as such, the government should fund it. I can tell you that for about three to four years now, the board has not received any allocation from the government. So, all the funds used were internally generated.

“For the offices in those zones to be functional, they must be equipped and staffed. For that singular reason, I pleaded with the minister to use his good offices to release fund to the board.

“Lack of funding does not apply to ESVARBON alone but all other agencies under the Ministry of Housing.  So, if the funding comes, there will be a lot of improvement,” he added.