GIA calls for review of Local Government Act

The Ghana Institute of Architects (GIA) is advocating for a revision of parts of the Local Government Act in order to make it mandatory for professionals to be involved in the construction of buildings in the country.

The institute expressed concern over the absence of professionals such as engineers, architects, and planners in overseeing building projects, which has resulted in the recent collapse of buildings.

This call for action follows the collapse of buildings in Nanakrom, located in the Adentan Municipality, as well as a six-story building at the University for Development Studies, City Campus in Sagnarigu.

To address this issue, the President of the GIA, Foster Osae Akonnor, said the inclusion of experts will help prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

Akonnor emphasized the need to provide support and capacity building to local assemblies, which will promote a more organized system and create employment opportunities for graduates.

He pointed out that many assemblies lack professionals such as architects and engineers, with some even appointing individuals from unrelated fields to fill those positions.

According to Akonnor, it is crucial to ensure that institutions have qualified personnel in place to fulfil their responsibilities. He advocates for a review of existing laws and regulations to enforce the participation of professionals from the private sector, thereby supporting local assemblies in fulfilling their mandates.

The President of GIA stressed the importance of this initiative, stating that building a better Ghana requires the active involvement of professionals in the construction sector.

He also highlighted the high unemployment rate among graduates in fields such as architecture, engineering, planning, quantity surveying, and land surveying, attributing it to the lack of job opportunities within the sector.

Speaking during a setup of an ad hoc committee to investigate the menace, Foster Osae Akonnor said: “Let’s get closer, let’s support the assembly with capacity building, once we do that, there will be sanity in the system, and it will create jobs for graduates, and we will be able to generate lots of jobs from the private sector. You go to some assemblies and the planner is an accounts officer. Most of them do not have architects and engineers, they have the titles”.

“We to push so that the institutions have their presence there, we are building Ghana for ourselves. It’s something that we have to encode, and it should be part of our acts and laws. We are calling for a review of some of the things to make sure that the professionals within the private sector support the assemblies to deliver their mandate. The mandate is for them to deliver, since they don’t have the capacity to deliver, we are stepping in to support them to deliver. There are a lot of graduates such as architects, engineers, planners, quantity and land surveyors who are unemployed because the offices are not hiring,” he stated.

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