Construction Professionals must be Licensed and Registered

Chairman of the National Housing Trust (NHT), Easton Douglas, said that professionals in the construction industry must become duly registered and licensed, stating that this is important for the development of the country.

"I would like to see us reach the stage very shortly, where every profession… the architects, the engineers, the quantity surveyors, the land surveyors, the valuation surveyors are registered and licensed as professionals in this country," he stated.

The NHT Chairman was speaking at the Jamaican Institute of Quantity Surveyors (JIQS) quarterly luncheon held on July 26 at the Alhambra Inn in St. Andrew.

Mr. Douglas said the process of licensing and registration will ultimately contribute to the Government's coffers but apart from that, it will result in proper procedures being taken by the relevant parties.

"When a quantity surveyor takes out quantities, when a land surveyor does a survey to do a subdivision, when an architect does the design to say what sort of building should be put up, and an engineer does the engineering design and so forth and so on, I believe they should take that plan to the authorities and the authorities should look at the plan and set out the criteria," he argued.

Mr. Douglas said that once the respective professionals have been licensed and registered and are seen as competent, whenever they stamp and sign a plan "if anything goes wrong, you run the risk of losing your license, that is the system I think that we have to develop in this country in a very, very short time".

He noted that the necessary meetings for dialogue and consultation will have to take place before the measures can be implemented.  "We need to meet and to discuss it and we need to lobby for it and I don't think it is something that is going to be too easily rejected," he stated.

In his remarks, President of JIQS, Shardon Haye, said the organisation has been lobbying the Government for the registration of the quantity surveying profession in the island and will continue to do so.

"As recently as the mid-2000s, we actually put together draft legislation, it got as far as being prepared for tabling in Parliament," he informed.

JIQS advances the interests of the profession of quantity surveying by maintaining the highest possible standards of professional ethics and practice, encouraging uniformity of practices and procedures, and fostering public faith in and understanding of quantity surveyors and their work.

The JIQS represents all quantity surveyors in public or private practice, whether they are employees or proprietors.