Valuation certificates should be a mandatory requirement by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) with respect to public office holders declaring their assets at all levels of government.
Valuation is technically a professional opinion of the worth of an asset. It is an opinion that can only be given by a professional as such opinions are important for business, government policies etc where decisions are to be taken with regard to assets generally.
Assets that may be subject to declaration and valuation could be tangible or intangible. All tangible assets should be declared given that the CCB Form is robust enough to accommodate land, buildings, jewelry, motor vehicles, cash at hand, cash in bank etc. All these should be declared by political appointees as they come into office.
Schedule 1 of the Act in particular states that all assets are to be listed and valued. So, what politicians do presently is provide details and historic costs of purchase and not value, thus defeating the purpose of the declaration.
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This is where the estate surveyor and valuer critically comes in because, as a registered professional, he is the only competent person who could proffer opinion on the value of assets in Nigeria.
The estate surveyor and valuer, as a registered professional, is trained and qualified and therefore will ensure that there will be no false reporting regarding the value of assets for the purpose of statutory declarations.
Though in every profession there are quacks, no quack can legally value any asset apart from the estate valuer.
The Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors & Valuers (NIESV) is very concerned about the spate of corruption in Nigeria and one way of contributing its quota to ensuring a corrupt-free Nigeria is to ensure that all procedures and processes are complied with especially by the CCB by ensuring that politicians are not only liable for false declarations but also the registered estate surveyor and valuer who supports such false information on the assets.
Governments should, therefore, liaise with estate surveyors to help fight corruption which is increasingly becoming borderless. This perhaps influenced NIRESV to invite the former Ghanaian President to address the recently concluded 53rd AGM of NIESV at Ilorin, Kwara State with the theme ‘Asset Valuation as a Global Anti-Corruption Tool: The Nigerian Experience’.
I, therefore, call on the CCB, which regulates public office holders’ assets reporting, to move further and direct politicians to attach along with their forms, an opinion of the value of assets being declared. These forms should be stamped by a registered estate surveyor and valuer.
The Nigeria Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) wants to ensure that all public servants and politicians, who have the statutory obligations to declare their assets at approved intervals, do so, by affixing Valuation Certificates issued by professional estate valuer.
This will ensure that an accurate property values database is kept and a veritable tool to fight money laundering in the real estate sector is also being put in place.
Adamu Kasimu is an Abuja-based Estate Surveyor and Valuer
