Ghana Institute of Surveyors to Get Rid of Quacks

By Kingsley E. Hope

Kumasi — The Ghana Institute of Surveyors is to embark on an exercise to get rid of quack surveyors duping the unsuspecting public.

According to the President of the Institute, Maame Ama Edumadze Acquah, the exercise would be effective as they look forward to the passage of a bill to regulate their profession.

She was interacting with the Ghanaian Times during the Institute's 50th anniversary celebration in Kumasi on Friday.

She said the passage of the Survey Council Act in Parliament would regulate the activities of surveyors in the country, lamenting that some unscrupulous people who had no certification were engaging in deceitful conduct.

The president noted that the passage of the law would align them with international standards, and called on surveyors to acquire leadership skills to help influence decision making for institutional change.

It was time, she said, surveyors took strategic decisions for the development of the country and citizenry, so that the number of people who would be living in urban areas would not suffer.

She said, "This process will bring about structural development, possibly in the urban centres, so when surveyors equip themselves early to adjust to the change, which will definitely happen; it will be timely for all."

Maame Ama Edumadze observed that when measures were put in place on time to save the lands, roads, transport and other land administration processes in the country, the poor, vulnerable and rich would be saved accordingly.

On the anniversary, the president explained that it was the key objective of the institution like surveyors to position the profession by articulating the professionals' role as effective leaders to promote and implement infrastructure to the best of standards.

The anniversary which was on the theme: 'Surveying Practice in Ghana, Celebrating the Past, Redefining the Future', brought together land professionals to discuss and increase participants' influence of becoming more familiar with the process of leading change.

For his part, the Chairman of the Institute, Kofi Cobbold, stressed the need for surveyors to embrace technology as a potential instrument in their profession.

He said the introduction of the digital information system had created an opportunity for the surveyors to use technology for planning and effective management of resources.

Mr Cobbold said technology was pervasive in all aspects of life, with land surveying also stepping up the pace of technology use.

He added that, land surveying had been an important factor in human civilisation since ancient history, as many kinds of surveying equipment had been used in the past to help land surveyors measure various parameters of land areas.

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