Asset form should have valuation certificate – Valuer

If the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) had given heed to its call, the Senate President Bukola Saraki would not have had need to appear before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over asset declaration, says chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Unity (Federal Capital Territory) Branch Mr Emmanuel Alao […]

If the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) had given heed to its call, the Senate President Bukola Saraki would not have had need to appear before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) over asset declaration, says chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Unity (Federal Capital Territory) Branch Mr Emmanuel Alao

You had your professional development seminar last month. What were the strong points from that seminar?
The seminar’s theme was Alternative Revenue Generation for National Development: The Relevance of Estate Surveyors and Valuers.
World over, the property taxation process is one of the surest sources of raising revenue for running government activities. But in Nigeria, we seem to underrate that aspect.

After all you discussed, could you highlight two, three issues that that authorities should consider?
We concluded that property taxation is key in our contemporary economy. The other aspect is relevance of estate surveyors in this revenue generation.
The other salient point is asset declaration. We looked at the various ways assets are declared vis-à-vis the issue at stake in the National Assembly regarding the Senate President [Bukola Saraki]. We looked at the loopholes. If estate surveyors had been involved to discharge their duty appropriately this hullabaloo wouldn’t have arisen.

Let’s pick asset declaration. As one comes into public office, one picks the asset declaration form issued by CCB and says, I own assets A, B and C. Does the bureau verify these declarations?
A couple of times, we reached CCB that it should do the right thing. In the declaration form, we noticed that provision is made for public officer or politician to list [their assets] and then fix their value. How do they verify the value – who fixes the worth of those assets?
We told them that anybody that prepares such document must be backed up with a valuation certificate and we’re the only professional body that is saddled with that responsibility of preparing valuation certificate or valuation report. Because if there’s valuation certificate or valuation report, it will involve the date of that valuation, the location of that valuation, the basis of the valuation and of course, if need be, photograph of that property.
With that, I see no reason somebody can have anticipatory valuation. For instance, you value property as A. If the property is valued today, you write the date you’re assessing the property. The location of property must be well described. The property well stated and of course, the value, the basis of the valuation. With all this, there will be no problems. Until valuation certificate is attached to the form, people will continue to circumvent the law.
Saraki matter wouldn’t have come on board if CCB had done what we had been calling on it to do.

Who should pay for this service by estate surveyor and valuer?
Definitely the client! That is the declarant is to pay for the service – not the bureau. What we do is enjoin the bureau to make it a condition – probably send it as a bill that whoever is submitting a form to CCB must attach valuation report because like the Saraki case, if those property were valued by estate surveyors and valuers, Saraki wouldn’t even need to appear at the tribunal. The estate surveyor would have been called to come defend what they valued if those property are there really as at the date they were valued. 
As a matter of fact, the professional body has taken CCB to court. This is the very first time the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyor and Valuers under the leadership of Olorogun James Omeru has taken an institution to court on our professional responsibility because government hasn’t lived up to expectation – we as a body are the only professionals responsible for valuation of property and assets.

We assume that CCB has valuers.
Well, they may have valuers but what we say is the in-house valuers have to verify and cross-check what the declarants have submitted. But the valuers outside are to prepare the valuation report of those assets they declare. Because if those assets are properly declared and worth are estimated, who gave them the worth? Somebody can wake up and say my property in so so area is N10 million. Who has attached the value to the property? We have parameters for attaching value.
What we’re asking CCB to do is let it be mandatory that whoever is declaring assets attaches valuation report. The case in point is the president of the country [Muhammadu Buhari]. I want to believe that the president must have consulted a professional valuer before ascribing worth to those property.

Looking at the Saraki case, what role do you think the profession can play to help solve this problem?
We have so many likes of Saraki – so many politicians have done what Saraki is accused of doing. It’s just that Saraki’s case is in the public glare – people will say it’s politically motivated but I would say if the right thing must be done, the change we’re professing…it should start with somebody. If it starts with Saraki, it should go round. To right the wrong, a step must be taken. We as a professional body won’t rest on our oars – we’ll continue to make the call for valuation certificate. We have our members in the National Assembly. We’re talking with them to champion this.
It isn’t only in that aspect that our profession has been neglected. A case in point is the issue of plant and machinery valuation whereby engineers are struggling to value plant and machinery. Who made them valuers? We’re competent and registered estate surveyor and valuers to attach value to assets, be they plants, machinery — all landed property, we’re the professionals, well trained and saddled with the enabling law to discharge our responsibility in that regard.
Of recent, we won the war against plant and machinery. But I see they’re still engaging to value plant and machinery. Two weeks ago, in your newspaper, NNPC [Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation] advertised, calling for expression of interest and included some conditions that estate surveyors aren’t in position to meet – what professional engineers should have. 

There’s a disturbing trend. Somebody comes into office. Within one, two years, the person acquires property in the best of places in big cities of this country. And estate professionals are managers of these assets.
We are partners in curbing corruption. Civil servants, public servants or politicians acquiring assets, we don’t have control over that. People feel secure buying property. But what the former government did was to establish what we call SCUML [Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering, an arm of Economic Crimes and Financial Commission], a body to monitor the laundering of money into property.
We owe our clients oath of secrecy so how those loopholes are blocked in government agencies isn’t our business. It’s business of government to see that SCUML works. At any point in time whereby we have transaction in a particular threshold of an amount, it should be reported to it. We as a professional body can only partner in curbing corruption – government is to drive the machinery.

Do you ask your members involved illicit deals questions? Like the Saraki case, what is the position of valuers involved in management of his assets?
Well, we have obligation in one aspect, in another we don’t have because some of our members aren’t privy to what Saraki filled in his form. He only listed the property. We wouldn’t know he listed some of the property managed by our people. In any case, we owe oath of secrecy to our clients – we’re not to disclose.