The Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIS) says it needs the ‘Survey Council Bill’ to be passed into law to regulate activities of members and non-members and protect the surveying business and its integrity.

Dr. John Amaglo, President of GhIS, who made the statement at a news conference in Accra on Monday, said many people had joined the business but were not registered with the Institution and as a result were engaging in malpractices that went against the policies of the Institution.

The news conference marked the commencement of the 16th Surveyors’ Week and 52nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of GhIS on the theme: “Building a Resilient Surveying Practice for Contemporary Times”.

The 2021 Surveyors' Week aims to provide professionals and organisations with the opportunity to step back, evaluate and discuss various disruptions that may hinder business as usual, and interrogate how to exploit these disruptions and challenges to build more resilient professional careers and organizations.

Dr. Amaglo said the Institution, which believed that land issues should not hinder development, would join hands with stakeholders to ensure that non-Surveyors did not advise on Land and Land Administration matters.

It would also see to it that only Professional Quantity Surveyors prepared and monitored all Project Budgets in the country, especially Public Projects.

Dr. Amaglo said the COVID-19 pandemic had had negative socio-economic impact on Ghanaian citizens.

While an estimated 42,000 people lost their jobs in the first two months of the pandemic in Ghana, the Country's tourism sector alone lost $171 million in the first three months due to the partial lockdown and closure of tourism and hospitality centres in the country.

Expressly, some people within the Surveying sector had suffered total or partial job loss to COVID-19 while others received only half of their monthly payments.

As a result, professionals and organisations, more than ever, had to rethink, build resilience and reconfigure their businesses to develop this ability to bounce back from misfortune and disruptions, the President advised.

Developing such resilience involved understanding crisis management and responding to protect the workforce, maintaining work continuity and making communication more effective to encourage remote working.

It further required managing operations and supply chains, finance and liquidity together with strategy and branding, he said.

To be able to bounce back after unfortunate incidences, Dr. Amaglo said digital transformation was key.

Despite the severe disruptions, he said Zoom Video Communications Inc. nevertheless saw unprecedented growth and success and had emerged as one of the biggest corporate success stories of the year 2020, with an increased profit of $663.5 million in the quarter of May-July 2020 from $5.5 million in the same quarter of 2019.

That was, therefore, a proof that disruptions did not necessarily guarantee failure, as there was a possibility of recovering from or adjusting quickly to misfortune or change.

Jeffrey Afful, Chair of the Planning Committee, 16th Surveyors’ Week and AGM, said the week-long celebration would continue with orientation for newly qualified members on Tuesday, February 23, 2021.

Other outlined activities will be presentations on the theme, elevation of members into the Class of Fellows, an induction of newly qualified members, investiture and the swearing-in of other Executives and the Governing Council on virtual online platforms.

Mr Afful said Ghana should not delude herself that time would resolve all her systemic challenges, adding that the pandemic had revealed that new drastic ways of managing the affairs of the state was a necessity to keep the sectors of the state machinery afloat.

“We must demand extraordinary and excellent management from our state institutions to create robust and resilient structures as a learning curve to survive the next significant disruption."

“The private sector of the economy, especially professional service providers, must incorporate the necessary business processes and shock absorbers to survive the current challenges, should it prolong, or against any future disruptions,” he said.