Ghana Institution of Surveyors launches Week

The Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS) on Monday, launched its 10th Surveyors’ Week and 46th Annual General Meeting and International Conference, on the theme: “Raising the Standards, Ethics and Professional Standards”.

The annual event, which was being held in collaboration with the Commonwealth Association of Surveyors and Land Economy, would start from March 11 to March 13, 2015, in Takoradi in the Western Region.

It was expected to attract both local and allied international Professional bodies such as, the Federation of International Surveyors, International Cost Engineering Council, Association of African Quantity Surveyors as well as the Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers.

Mr Joseph Tetteh Odametey, the President of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors, at a Press Conference in Accra, said the services of professional surveyors has become more important globally, particularly as countries in the developing world were currently seeing massive development of properties and the construction of markets.

He said the Ghanaian society now expects the GhIS to work together with other professionals to address the issue, particularly, that of ethics, professional standards, good governance, and all other challenges confronting the Built Environment.

According to him as development increases, the role played by professionals in good governance and sustainable development cannot be over-emphasized, because professionals who operate without ethical standards cannot succeed in the fight against bad governance and corruption, which has resulted in some of the financial crisis confronting the world.

He said to avoid misallocation and misuse of the scarce resources of the continent, professionals who manage the Built Environment, would have to lift the game, adding that, this brings to the fore the question of how the surveying professional appropriates standards, regulation and capacity development to achieve this massive undertakings.

The conference would take the form of workshops and presentations of papers under topics such as, Advancing Professional Ethics, International Property Measurement Standards, Change of Land Use, Construction and Procurement, RICS Features and What International Investors Require to help increase the capacity of members on global trends.

There would also be professionals from the educational sector, government and those in professional practices to lead in discussions on how to incorporate ethical standards into training and regulations and how to ensure global consistency, in terms of ethical standards, not only for the benefit of the surveying profession, but also for clients and the public good.