The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Construction professionals yesterday said that allowing licensed engineers and architects to perform third-party building inspections will help “reduce the bottlenecks in the Ministry of Works”.

Quentin Knowles, the Bahamas Society of Engineers (BSE) president, told Tribune Business that such changes to the Building Regulations Act - which would enable third-party building inspections to be outsourced to the private sector - was something the industry has been calling on for years.

Mr Knowles said: “This is something we have been behind several ministers for, because they obviously do have a serious bottleneck down at the Building Control Department. What happens is that sometimes a lack of adequate resources, and this is not due to a lack of talent; it’s just that they don’t have sufficient, qualified inspectors available in the department.”

He was responding after the deputy prime minister and minister for works, Desmond Bannister, said the Government plans to go to Parliament when it returns from its summer break to amend the Building Regulations Act and allow for third-party inspections to be conducted by qualified architects and engineers.

Responding to concerns that allowing construction industry professionals to check each other’s work may lead to collusion, Mr Knowles said: “With legislation, just like anywhere else in the world, there has to be a code of ethics that people sign on to.

“The same possibility of collusion in the private sector will be the same possibility for that in the public sector. I think the concerns over industry collusion are a little overblown. I think once a construction professional is granted a license, they are supposed to meet a certain criteria and a certain code of ethics that is clearly indicated and clearly identified within the legislation. If you are found to violate any of the ethics you can be sued. I think in the private sector there is more risk, so I don’t think it will be that much of a problem.”

Michael Pratt, president of the Bahamian Contractors Association, added: “We have been waiting on this for the past several years. This is something we have been fighting for for quite some time now.”

Referring to a proposal that the joint council of construction industry associations put forward to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in October 2019, in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, Mr Pratt said: “Along with the move towards private sector-led building inspections we have also seen movement on a change to the building codes. They have assigned someone in the Ministry of Works and they are working on upgrading the codes as we speak.”