Lands Commission warns surveyors who front for quacks

The Lands Commission has asked licensed surveyors who are fronting for quacks to flout laws and regulations for surveying and mapping of land to stop that practice, otherwise they would be sanctioned.

It also warned persons who were parading themselves as surveyors to advise themselves and desist from such practices before the law clamps down on their activities.

The Executive Director of the Lands Commission, Dr Wilfred K. Anim-Odame, who issued the warning, was speaking at a meeting with about 100 members of the Licensed Surveyors Association of Ghana (LISAG) drawn across the country in Accra last Thursday.

The meeting, which was at the instance of the Lands Commission, was meant to explore ways by which the two stakeholders could identify and deal with challenges in land administration.

It also provided an opportunity for them to strategise on how to improve upon service delivery in line with the digitalisation regime that had been rolled out to ensure that land titles were delivered within 30 days.

Dr Anim-Odame said the decision to deal with unlicensed and quack surveyors was part of efforts by the Lands Commission to ensure precision and accuracy in the mapping and surveying of land.

“The issue of quack surveyors is serious because I have seen a number of survey plans that are not compliant with legislative instrument (LI) 1444, and this tells us on the face that those plans are not coming from licensed surveyors. Some persons from traditional authorities and other quarters are also parading themselves as surveyors.

Henceforth, we are going to apply sanctions to all quacks and surveyors who practise without reference to the guidelines and standards,” he said.

Testing of equipment

Dr Anim-Odame directed all surveyors to submit their equipment to the Survey and Mapping Division of the Lands Commission annually for calibration and testing.

He said the move was to ensure that the equipment were of good quality for the production of accurate survey plans and maps.

He added that the focus of the commission was to build stronger collaboration with LISAG on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis to deliver efficient land administration.

The acting Director of the Survey and Mapping Division of the Lands Commission, Mr Edward Addo Tawiah, advised the surveyors to reposition themselves to be relevant as a number of reforms were being introduced to map the country to improve land service delivery.

He said the only way to give real meaning to the local content law was for the surveyors to build their capacity to improve on their competencies.

Diligence

The President of LISAG, Mr Kwame Tenadu, stated that the association would collaborate with the Lands Commission to weed out quack surveyors and also stop members who had been fronting for third parties.

“We will fight hard to remove all crooked people within our fold. If such people are identified, the authorities should deal with them appropriately,” he said.
He gave an assurance that the association would play its part to help the Lands Commission to achieve its 30-day turnaround time in land title registration.