The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) is faced with challenges in the approval and enforcement of building regulations, Mr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, the Mayor, has said.

The situation, he said, had adversely affected the city and its populace.

Mr Vanderpuije mentioned some of the challenges as the physical development processes, which are sometimes marred by delays, inaccuracies, technical quality deficiencies, capacity inadequacies, poor record keeping and communication, duplication of functions, non compliance, political interference and ignorance.

Speaking at the launch of a collaboration between Professionals in the Built-Environment and the AMA, the City Mayor conceded that apart from the shortcomings in the area of logistics, requisite manpower and personnel, it had also been observed that sometimes, a greater part of applications together with the annexes, building designs and titles submitted for development approval, did not conform to the standards and requirements.

He said though the Assembly had no direct control over the professionals, the partnership between the two institutions was apt to address the quagmires and leverage its opportunities.

The Mayor called on the stakeholders to be civic minded as the process of developing a city in terms of planning, design and implementation should be reviewed and normalized towards optimal effectiveness and efficiency.

“Non-compliance, willful ignorance, irregularity and interference should cease among the ranks of the built-environment”, he said.

The institutes of Planners, Engineers, Architects and Surveyors that are partnering the AMA, pledged to ensure that there was quality control in the pre and post development process and also assist in the education of clients on design requirements by organising seminars and forums.

They also gave the assurance to give technical support to the technical sub-committee in the vetting of the development application of all categories and site inspections prior to approval and for on-going projects.

The professionals further pledged to assist the Assembly in reviewing out-dated planning schemes, building regulations and development guidelines and make same available to public and private developers.

Dr. Stephen Yirenkyi, President of the Ghana Institute of Planners, who spoke on behalf of the group, commended the Mayor for his passion to make Accra a better city despite the odds.

He noted that some members of the group recently had an opportunity to visit Malaysia and Singapore to familiarize themselves with developments in their cities and said they were now energized and poised to give the AMA all the needed support.

Answering questions on buildings on the road and water ways, the Director for Town and Country Planning Department, Ms Doris Tetteh said in due course buildings marked for demolition would be pulled down.

Ghana in November 2010 attained the status of a lower middle income nation and Accra, which provides the highest level of economic, administrative, and socio-cultural functions, carries the greatest burden of the developmental process.

Currently, the urban growth rate of Accra is 4.3 % per annum, which is far above the national average of 3% per annum thus putting pressure on the built environment.