Let’s cut down on corrupt surveyors – Chief to Licensed Surveyors
Oklepeme Nuer Annorbaa Sasraku II, Paramount Chief of the Yilo Krobo Traditional Council, has called on the Licensed Surveyors Association of Ghana (LiSAG) to clamp down on corrupt surveyors from the system.
The step is to pave the way for better cooperations between the Association’s members, traditional authorities, and their communities.
He said some surveyors were using lanterns and torch lights to pick lands at midnight…if we are not able to clamp down on these corrupt surveyors, it would hinder and weaken efforts at licensing surveying activities.
“This is going to lead to threats. Threats can compromise approvals from traditional leaders and community landowners.”
Oklepeme Sasraku II made the call at the Sixth Annual General Meeting and Seminar of the LiSAG, in Accra on the theme: “Leveraging Base Maps for Urban Transformation and Economic Growth: The Licensed Surveyors’ Role”.
He underscored the need for traditional authorities to be recognised over land issues
To ensure sustainability of leveraging base maps for urban growth, he said it was not just about technology, academics, or modernisation, but building structures in sustainable ways.
The Paramount Chief said land was a critical commodity in human existence, adding: “We can say that land is life, because without land, we don’t have existence. People are trying to go into the mars. But at the end of the day, they are not able to stay there. They still come back to the land,” he added
To promote city growth, industrialization, and economic benefits, he recommended that the nation developed a pragmatic and conscious approach to handle land matters.
He admonished the Association to embark on effective advocacy and education for better understanding, to enable traditional authorities, landowners, and communities to appreciate the importance of their operations.
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, the Minister of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, in a speech read on his behalf, said the nation’s cities were growing at a very fast rate, hence requiring up-to-date and comprehensive spatial data to guide development.
The National Urban Policy and urban development decisions, he said had critically identified spatial planning as a precursor to orderly and sustainable urban projects.
He explained that land use and spatial planning formed the foundation for building and investing in development for small cities and improved public services.
“We need that strategic purpose, mapping transport infrastructure to the governmental features. These forms are the foundation of our sustainable and resilient cities and buildings,” he said.
Speaking about some relevance of mapping, Mr Ibrahim said it reduced disaster risks through a basic profile and other proactive disaster mitigation strategies, while presenting places for land use planning, sorting, and enforcement of urban replacement to ensure urban development.
As custodians of new spatial knowledge, he asked licensed surveyors to lead private urban and economic development through innovation and collaboration.
The Minister encouraged members of the Association to embrace innovation, foster collaboration, and champion sustainability to ensure that their urban centres became vibrant, economically strong, and liberal.
Mr Samuel Larbi Darko, the President, LiSAG, said surveyors played a vital role in shaping the Earth’s environment and ensuring that development was sustainable.
Although the Association had made some achievements like an increase in membership by18.38 per cent (from 185 to 219), and establishing valuable partnerships with reputable Chinese Surveying Manufacturers on the leasing and hiring Purchase of GNSS instruments for their members, he said they recognised that there were still challenges to be addressed and opportunities to be seized.
Base maps, fundamental representations of spatial information, serve as indispensable tools in urban planning, governance, and economic development.
These maps provide the foundational framework upon which detailed geographic data, land use plans, and infrastructure designs are overlaid, forming the bedrock of decision-making in urban transformation.
Source: GNA