The Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai has urged the federal and state governments to denounce the use of Bills of Engineering Measurement and Evaluation (BEME) for all construction projects.
The Governor who made the call in Abuja Saturday while serving as Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) President’s Business Dinner called for the use of “Bills of Quantities” as the exclusive document for costing of projects.
El-Rufai who is a Fellow of the NIQS noted that the current practice in the construction industry where designers are also the cost advisers was wrong, insisting that such a practice was not transparent and should be stopped in Nigeria.
“In Kaduna State, we have since outlawed BEME for all our construction projects. I don’t know where that document came from and we are not going to use it. The best book on Measurements all over the world was written by a Quantity Surveyor and the document used for the costing of all civil and building engineering projects is called the Bills of Quantities (BOQ),” El-Rufai said.
Speaking at the event, the President of the Institute, Mohammed Abba Tor said the last 50 years of NIQS have been eventful, replete with achievements that are difficult to ignore. He said membership strength of the Institute is now about 10,000 made up of fellows, corporate members, probationers, technicians and students.
According to him, the NIQS has signed reciprocity agreement the Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (CIQS) as part of the current strategic reforms that the Institute is undergoing.
He listed the completion of the new NIQS Head Office Complex in Abuja, the establishment of the QS Academy and the Digitization of the Institute operations as some of the achievements of the NIQS.