Beware of quack surveyors – President of GhIS cautions the public

The President of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS), Dr Anthony Arko-Adjei, has cautioned Ghanaians to be wary of unscrupulous persons parading as surveyors.

He said there were many quack surveyors who had not been trained, and therefore lacked the requisite skills and qualifications to take up work as surveyors in the name of the GhIS and the Licensed Surveyors Association of Ghana (LiSAG).

He therefore cautioned the public to be careful in hiring the services of such people.

He added that the association had now come up with stamps for professional surveyors that distinguished them from the quacks, and urged the public to be on the look for the trained and licensed surveyors when hiring them for their services.

Dr Arko-Adjei was speaking at the closing ceremony of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Working Week in Accra last Thursday.

It was on the theme: “Your World, Our World: Resilient Environment and Sustainable Resource Management for All”.

The conference brought together over 1,000 surveyors from across different fields from 90 countries.

Dr Arko-Adjei said both the GhIS and LiSAG were working with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to get the Surveying Council Bill, which had been in the system for close to 25 years, passed to push out the quack surveyors.

He lamented that there was currently no law or regulation by which the quack surveyors could be held liable, with most of them denouncing membership when they were caught.

“We need laws and regulations to be able to bring members and quack surveyors to book; that’s what we want the government to help us to do. There are so many unscrupulous persons parading themselves as surveyors who don’t have the requisite skills to do the work they are doing,” he said.

Policy

The President of LiSAG, Samuel Larbi Darko, said the conference helped surveyors across the world to share knowledge, best practices and experiences to advance their profession.

He added that the conference would help the government in shaping policy for land management to, among others, address illegal mining and flooding in the country.

Mr Darko noted that illegal mining had grave consequences on the local environment, adding that there was the need for surveyors to be involved as they had the expertise “to be able to pinpoint where the mineral deposits are so that the area can be demarcated to strictly restrict the miners to the demarcated area” in order not to destroy other portions with their expansive prospecting.

He appealed to the government to back surveyors with the needed funding to do “topographic survey to determine the nature of the surface of the land and ascertain where there are hills, valleys and rivers, and give it to the authorities to do proper planning”.

Commitment

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, said the government was committed to the vision of FIG, and would continue to invest in technologies and capacity building to help the sector.

“Ghana remains committed to supporting the vision of the FIG and fostering a sustainable surveying profession. We will continue to invest in capacity building, technological advancements and policy reforms that enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our land sector,” he said.

He added that the goal of the ministry was to “provide innovative, reliable and best-practice solutions in our ever-changing and complex world, anchored on integrity, transparency, accountability and confidence in the value of surveying”.

Mr Jinapor noted that the government, through the ministry, was also implementing an Urban Redevelopment Scheme through which several prime lands in urban areas were being redeveloped to ensure judicious use of land to contribute to building sustainable cities and communities in accordance with Goal 11 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Additionally, he said the government had developed a National Geospatial Policy to provide the foundation to underpin a spatially enabled society for the benefit of the Ghanaians.