‘Quantity surveyors have tools to help EFCC’

You had your investiture last year. What has been your programme for actualization of the things you promised the institute? We’ve set in motion structures to achieve our action plan. One of them is to restructure the secretariat to be more efficient to deliver the profession. We’ve trained our staff, we’ve embarked on capacity building […]

You had your investiture last year. What has been your programme for actualization of the things you promised the institute?
We’ve set in motion structures to achieve our action plan. One of them is to restructure the secretariat to be more efficient to deliver the profession.
We’ve trained our staff, we’ve embarked on capacity building for our members. You know, we have a standard method of measurement which was launched last year. We’re going round the six geo-political zones to train our members on how to utilize this method of measurement. This method of measurement is all encompassing: infrastructural measurement, building, all kinds of construction measurements are considered in this…you know we’re building on past measurements by making sure they align with present day realities in the construction industry.
We’re also planning several workshops to enhance the capacity of our members. We want to be recognized as construction professionals that offer value for money so we’re seriously working in this direction. We’ve planned visits to organizations that will make them appreciate our value and help in fighting corruption.

You visited EFCC recently. What was your mission?
We felt that as quantity surveyors, we share common values with EFCC – accountability, probity. Fight against corruption isn’t a one-man fight. People shouldn’t leave the fight to EFCC alone. All well-meaning Nigerians must join hands to fight corruption. All organizations that can support the fight should join EFCC.
As a body, we’re ready to support EFCC in their investigative role of fraud in the construction sector because we have the tools to be able to do that.
EFCC is planning to set up a procurement fraud unit. We went to commend EFCC chief executive for such an initiative and encourage him to deploy procurement fraud unit officers to MDAs so that from the beginning, fraud is nipped in the bud. We had very successful deliberations. They wished other professional bodies will join the fight against corruption.

We have quantity surveyors but in almost every project, variation problem arises. Why is this so?
Every project is unique and that’s why for every project, there should be an investigation to say why there’s variation. There’re many reasons there will be variation on site.
One is incomplete design and documentation from the beginning. When a design is not completed and you base your estimates on incomplete…of course, when the project starts, you begin to discover certain areas that were not there in the design but are necessary for the project. And if you want the project to function, you must introduce them.
Another reason there will be variation on site is lack of details. There might be complete design but there might be no proper details so by the time you come to execute those components, you discover that was not what was estimated – you begin to change.
Another reason is when the architect, the designer varies his specifications. Perhaps at the conception of the design, he had for example ceramic tiles, half-way, he discovers that this project requires a better floor finish – changing it to granite. Definitely, there will be need for variation of the project.
Again, incomplete documentation where all the documents are not there on ground…sometimes they’re omitted by design, so as the project goes on, there will be variation.

But it becomes worrisome when we have it almost on every project site. It raises question about the kind of professionals we have.
One other reason is as a result of project abandonment — when a project is abandoned due to lack of budget provision or inadequate provision. For example, in the envelop type of budgeting that was done in the past, a project might cost N300 million, there’s a budgetary provision of N100 million irrespective of the convenient point where the person will stop or irrespective of how much it will take for the project for that year. So wherever the budget stops, the project stops. The project may stop half-way in the middle of the year and you wait for another half of the year for it to pick up. And you know what happens in price fluctuations in this country. Building materials – you wake up, you go to market and it’s a different thing.
Look at what’s happening now to the foreign exchange. If you had made your budget estimates of a project based on previous prices, today, you wake up with a different thing. Prices of foodstuffs have gone up. Is it building materials that won’t go up? So there are variations that are unavoidable.
There are variations that are due to government policies, they are genuine. Then there are those that are by design for corrupt reasons.
But claims can be really genuine. If for example a contractor undertakes a project, for a long time he’s not paid by the client, he borrows money from the bank, there’s interest he has to pay and he has to put up claims. Claims add to the cost of project.

Abuja has been declared a money laundering city. What do you think about this?
The political will has been shown…you know in the past, you could make noise, nothing would change. But we have a president whose body language alone is speaking volumes. EFCC is working very hard now.
Money laundering isn’t a thing of the professionals – I think when the political will is there, when the leakages are blocked…because where do we get the money from? Quantity surveyors have no idea where the money is. Professionals are crying of lack of patronage – they don’t have the jobs.

So when a client comes, they don’t ask where the money is from.
It’s very difficult. When someone comes to put up a project then you ask who is this, where did he get his money. It’s not the duty of professionals to do that.