By Chris Ochayi, Abuja

Worried by the high cost of construction projects in Nigeria, the Federal Government last week, charged Quantity Surveyors to collaborate with the anti-graft agencies in order to strengthen the fight against corruption and unethical practices in the award of contracts.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim who gave the charge in Abuja during the 1st National Project Cost Reduction Summit organised by the Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria, QSRBN, regretted that the cost of construction projects in Nigeria ranks the highest in the world.

The theme of the summit was “Achieving Value-for-Money in the development of Public Infrastructure in Nigeria”.
The former Senate President noted that “it is the duty of every professional regulatory body, such as yours to monitor the ethical disposition and conduct of their members so as to guard against collusion and connivance with unpatriotic elements in inflating the costs of projects.

He added, “the need to fight corruption and unethical behaviours led to the establishment of agencies such as the Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences Commission, ICPC , and the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.

“Government views with concern the fact that cost of construction projects in Nigeria ranks among the highest in the world. It is in this regard that the Federal Government has put in place the required legal framework through the enactment of the Public Procurement Act 2007. The main objective of the Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP, is to ‘ensure  that fair, competitive, transparent, value-for-money and standards practices are adopted in the public procurement process,” he said.

Continuing, Senator Anyim said:”The elements for attaining this cost reduction are financial probity, value-for-money, efficient allocation of resources and accountability in the conceptualization, planning and execution of engineering and construction projects within the national economy.

“Mr. President at various  times has expressed worry and serious concern about the high cost  of road projects in Nigeria  and has directed the Economic Management Team  headed by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance to find  solution to this malaise. I believe that the Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria also has a role to play in finding solutions to this disturbing problem”.

The SGF stated that quantity surveyors hold the key to unravelling the mystery behind the high costs not derived from inflation within the economy but high cost which arise from factors other than market forces.

“I am saying this because I am aware that generally, contractors often respond to invitations to bids based on their perceptions of the risks associated with each project. They naturally attempt to mitigate the risks by translating them into monetary values which are invariably transferred to the overall project costs. Some of such risks include design, funding, high interest, security, foreign exchange fluctuation risks All these risks have huge impact on the cost of projects’ in Nigeria,” he said.

He enjoined the construction cost experts to design templates for determining cost bands and ranges for various types of projects so as to instil sanity in the planning and preparation of capital budgets.

“The Government will require Quantity Surveyors to bring to bear their expertise in budgetary planning of capital projects, cost management and cost auditing in the emerging regime as we cannot achieve value-for-money without the requisite expertise, knowledge and skill ,“ the SGF said.