Professionals call for establishment of national construction cost data

Professionals in the building sector have called on the Federal Government to  establish  construction cost information system and a national construction cost data base as  a panacea for high project costs. They also noted that   road construction promotes trade, employment generation and improve standard of living in any country, adding that   the present […]

Professionals in the building sector have called on the Federal Government to  establish  construction cost information system and a national construction cost data base as  a panacea for high project costs.

They also noted that   road construction promotes trade, employment generation and improve standard of living in any country, adding that   the present state of dilapidated roads & highways in the country  was traced to inadequate maintenance works, lack of enforcement of axle load limits on roads/bridges etc.

This was contained in a communiqué issued at the 2017 National Project Cost Reduction summit tagged ‘Fighting Corruption Through Proper Project Costing in Nigeria’, organised by Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria (QSRBN) held recently in Abuja.

The communiqué further attributed high cost of highway construction to absence of good governance, transparency and accountability.

It states that   incomplete project designs before award of contracts, misuse/misapplication of Bill of Quantities (BOQ), and abuse of Prime Cost (PC) and, Provisional Sums (PS) lead to high project cost.

It stated that some construction professionals engaged in unprofessional and unethical conducts which encouraged   corruption. 

“Delays in project completion resulted to high cost due to inflation and other vagaries in the economy. The effect of delayed payment metamorphosed into cost overrun, abandonment and demotivation of workers,’’ stated the communiqué.

It recommended that proper project costing by registered quantity surveyors would help curb corruption and high project cost and  should work alongside designers to reduce project cost.

“Necessary institutional arrangements and legal framework should be put in place to promote good governance, transparency, checks and balances and value for money.   Value for money should be the focal point in infrastructure development to aid the socio-economic development of Nigeria,” it said.

It called for an urgent  construction summit to emphasise the imperative of teamwork among construction professionals as a recipe for project success. 

“Engineers for engineering projects and architects for building projects should focus on design and supervision function, while quantity surveyors should focus on costing and payment valuation function on both engineering and building projects to promote transparency, accountability, good governance and value for money,” it said.