FG tasks quantity surveyors on anti-graft war

QSRBN would be promoting quantity-surveying principles of probity, accountability, efficient resource management, and value for money, corporate governance and due process as its contribution to national wellbeing .

AS the professional bodies intensify efforts to curtail unwholesome conduct in the construction sector, the federal government last week charged quantity surveyors to champion the fight against wastage and looting of public funds perpetrated through contract inflation, over-invoicing and other acts of corruption.
 
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Mr. Gorge Ossi who made the appeal at the conference organised by the Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria (QSRBN) in Abuja, noted that a major component of the change agenda of Buhari’s administration is to improve infrastructure.
   
He stressed the need for surveyors to tackle the challenge of high cost of construction projects in Nigeria, adding that the. Government would be counting on their expertise in cost management of construction projects and infrastructure to put the country back on the right track to sustainable growth and development.
 
He urged them to leverage on their professional expertise to promote resource optimization and value maximization in construction project implementation thereby helping to establish a firm regime of Value-for-Money in the process.
   
Ossi stated that the theme of the conference “Strategic Options for the Nigerian Quantity Surveyors in the Next Two Decades”, provides an opportunity for the QSRBN not only to keep its members abreast with the rapidly expanding knowledge frontiers in the profession but also for them to examine the strategic options available to serve the country in the most optimal fashion in the decades head.

“ It also provides a forum for registered Quantity Surveyors to review the practice of the profession in the previous years with a view to proffering solutions to the challenges confronting it, he added”.
 
Earlier, QSRBN President, Mallam Husaini Dikko said quantity surveyors must be in the vanguard of the fight against corruption, adding that practitioners must use the profession as the standard for what is right and honourable. .

He said, “ Corruption is pervasive in all sectors of our national life and you will be amazed at the wealth of this country if we plug leakages that abound in form of bribery, over-invoicing, contract inflation and fraudulent procurement among others. Apart from our integrity and character as quantity surveyors, our knowledge and competence will foreshadow our professional activities and be a major determinant of how the society will assess our relevance”.

He urged registered quantity surveyors in the country to sharpen their managerial skill especially in the area of advising clients on financial matters and investment decision-making and also undertake a holistic survey of the Nigerian economy and fit their skills set outside the traditional building and construction in favour of policy making and corporate governance issues.
 
Dikko observed that QSRBN would be promoting quantity-surveying principles of probity, accountability, efficient resource management, and value for money, corporate governance and due process as its contribution to national wellbeing and the success of the anti-corruption agenda of the present administration.