Changes for architects and surveyors

A NEW draft law will broaden the scope of professionals operating for architects and quantity surveyors in the construction sector by recognising landscape architects and interior decorators, who can register at envisaged control boards.

Tabling the Architectural and Quantity Surveying Professions Bill in Parliament on Tuesday, Works and Transport Minster Erkki Nghimtina said the new legislation would officially recognise architectural technicians and technologists, quantity surveying technicians, interior decorators and landscape architects as professionals.Each of these professions will get its own board of control under the umbrella of the planned Council for Architectural and Quantity Surveying Professionals. ‘The old Architects and Quantity Surveyors Act of 1979 was amended after Independence in 1992 and it made provision for the Namibian Council of Architects and Quantity Surveyors, but the amendment did not go far enough to recognise the different categories of professionals in these fields,’ Nghimtina told the House. According to the new Bill, the existing Council of Architects and Quantity Surveyors, will be renamed Namibia Council for Architects and Quantity Surveying Professionals. The existing Namibian Institute of Architects, which up to now registered professionals in the industry, will not be doing that any longer once the new law is passed. Instead, it will become one of the boards of control under the new 12-member council. Apart from collecting levies from the professionals who register to obtain a certificate, the council will prescribe the kinds of work in the fields of architecture and quantity surveying which must be reserved for them and prescribe minimum tariffs and fees they may charge.Professionals must also do an examination or assessment, should they have qualifications that differ from those to be prescribed by the Works and Transport Ministry.People and companies who are not registered but perform work that should be carried out by architects and quantity surveying professionals will be fined N$12 000.The new legislation also prescribes that every shareholder in an architect’s or quantity surveyor’s company must be a director. Non-shareholders may not be a director in such companies.