Compromising ethics cause of building collapse – Quantity surveyors

The national executive council members of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) have said when professionals and stakeholders in the built environment compromise ethics, building collapse occur.

The president of the institute, Olayemi Shonubi, made the assertion during a strategy retreat for the national executive council (2021-2023) of the institute, with the theme ‘Ethics, Corporate Governance and Strategic Planning’, at Hawthorn Suites, Abuja.

He said last year’s Ikoyi building collapse was a failure of ethics on the part of professionals and stakeholders.

“The collapse of the storey building in Lagos for me was a failure of particular ethics of all professionals that were involved in the project. Let me say to all the stakeholders that were involved, not only the professionals but the government and developers, it was the failure of ethics.

“And that’s one of the reasons we want to continue to focus so that we can prepare our members to be ready to act correctly. 

“You know, sometimes, our actions or what we don’t do have an effect on the public. So we shouldn’t basically focus on who’s paying us alone but what’s in the public good and interest,” Shonubi stated.

The president, therefore, reiterated his commitment to entrenching ethics and corporate governance in the administration of the institute throughout his tenure.

Also speaking, the Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of NIQS, Ayodele Alao, said most of the building failures recorded in the recent past bordered on ethics.

“We’ve realised that most of the failures that have been recorded, especially in recent times in the built environment, border on ethics. 

“It’s a cause for concern and it’s been a topic for discourse among all professionals in the sector because it is time we began to take the issues of ethics very seriously.  

“It is time our moral compass guided us in all that we do and we follow the ethics of individual professions,” he said.

Alao stressed that that was one of the reasons the national executive council of NIQS organised the leadership retreat “to ensure that we continue to have discussions around the issues of ethics and how we guard our profession and how we carry out our daily activities in our profession.”