May 02, (THEWILL) – The Chairman of the Ogun State Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS), Qs. Solomon Ojo, has appealed to Governor Dapo Abiodun to engage and prioritise indigenous quantity surveyors for the construction of developmental projects in the state.
Ojo, who stated this in an exclusive interview on Friday, said that it was high time the current administration prioritised local quantity surveyors either in the civil service or as consultants in the construction of people-oriented projects across the state.
He urged the governor to look inward for professionals in quantity surveying through the Ministry of Works and Housing on projects such as schools, railways, roads, airports, among others, rather than going outside to bring in surveyors to construct projects in the state.
The Chairman called on Abiodun to prevail on the Chairmen of the 20 Local Government Areas across the state to engage quantity surveyors in each of their councils for cost-effective management of building materials in order to achieve quality grassroots-oriented projects at the local level.
He also implored the governor to involve the state members of NIQS in the procurement section of the construction sector at the ministry, lamenting that non-professionals of the construction industry had taken over the section.
Ojo, therefore, pleaded with the state government to give the association an outstanding rebate on the land it plans to acquire for the construction of its State secretariat, stressing that NIQS is a non-governmental organisation and could not afford such a huge amount.
He said, ” We also prefer that His Excellency, in his own wisdom, prioritises using the indigenous quantity surveyors. In our state chapter, we will appreciate the governor reaching out to us through the commissioners for housing or the commissioner for works to recommend seasoned professionals who can come to us and ask us which firm or individual can handle these projects, such as you are encouraging indigenous members instead of importing. In most cases, we have qualified surveyors coming from outside Ogun State to construct projects in the state.
“Lack of adequate involvement of our members in the developmental projects in Ogun State is the major challenge we are facing, we have so many projects going on in the state courtesy our good governor his Excellency Prince Dapo Abiodun, we have infrastructural road construction, rehabilitation of schools, and so many of them but we discovered that are members are not optimally involved in this very important development. We need more quantity surveyors to be involved, especially in this procurement process for these projects.
“For instance, in the ministry in Ogun State, we have a particular section of procurement, and we discovered that it is non-construction professionals who dominate that aspect of procurement of infrastructural activities. And for procurement, we need quantity surveyors who have been trained in cost management of construction works. So, imagine somebody who does not have the prerequisite knowledge for handling procurement of roads, building construction, and railway, of course, we will not get value for money. So we need our members to be involved, and in the procurement unit, we have professionals who are not relevant in the construction industry.
“We also need our members to be engaged in local government, where we have developmental projects going on. We have 20 Local Government Areas in Ogun State. If we have at least one quantity surveyor in each of the local government areas, that will be 20 quantity surveyors in all that will be engaged by the government. We know the QS will be given a salary, but what the QS will be given back will be far more than the salary received. The will monitor, make sure that the government has value for money spent and gets a quality return from all these projects.
“But, I also want to mention one that is very germane even do recently the state government had accorded us the honour of allocating a land to build our secretariat, but we the that the amount the government is requesting is very ambitious we know government to understand that we are non- governmental organisations and we are not making profit and so we need government to help us to look into the aspect of the land and give us outstanding rebate so that we can be able to secure the land and build the secretariat”, he added.
