Govt Surveyors Lament Poor Funding

Govt Surveyors Lament Poor Funding

By Emmanuel Addeh

Surveyors attached to government offices in the country have bemoaned the poor funding of their offices, calling for improved financial allocation to agencies saddled with the responsibility of data collection.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the 54th Surveyor Coordination and Advisory Board on Survey Training and Conference at the weekend in Abuja, Surveyor General of the Federation, Mr Samuel Taiwo, noted that the seeming neglect of the important job bequeathed to government surveyors was negatively affecting their performance.

During the conference themed:”Geospatial Information: Achievement of SDGs and Good Governance”, Taiwo explained that because agencies saddled with the responsibility of data collection were inadequately funded, they lack enough verve to move ahead in terms of improvement in delivering quality services.

He lamented that survey reports from heads of state surveyor offices and security agencies were still not being submitted to the office of the Surveyor General, as required by the law.

Taiwo added that the issue of curriculum for hydrographic surveying at the training institutions remains unresolved , stressing that some surveyors-general in the country were not abreast of contemporary tools for solving socio-economic challenges.

The conference observed that surveyors were no longer much involved in researches to identify challenges around their environment and lamented that sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are not achievable without necessarily geospatial information.

While bemoaning the poor ratio of lecturers to students in training centres all over the country, the Surveyor General urged “the government and relevant authorities to encourage institutions offering surveying and geo-informatics to employ more lecturers to meet the required ration of lecturers to students,“ he said.

He said the conference had resolved that surveyors in Nigeria should involve deeply in research to identify challenges within their environment, in order to evolve geo-spatial inputs that could help mitigate such challenges.

Taiwo advised state surveyors-general yet to be upgraded to Extra-ministerial Department (EMD) to seek the advice of the OSGF and other states already upgraded, to fast track their upgrade to the EMD.

He also said OSGF should liaise more with oil and gas industries as well as other stakeholders to improve their participation in the subsequent conferences and in the sector generally.

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