UGANDA, Kampala | Real Muloodi News | Alozius Gonza, a valuer and director of GMT Consultants Ltd, has been inaugurated as the new president of the Institution of Surveyors of Uganda (ISU).
The ISU is an umbrella organisation that represents 1962 members, including land surveyors, valuers, quantity surveyors, and mining and hydrological surveyors.
The event took place at the Imperial Resort Beach Hotel Entebbe earlier this month, and was themed “Legal Framework and Practice for Professionals, a regional outlook.”
Gonza, who was previously the vice president, succeeds Dr Nathan Kibwami, a quantity surveyor who served for two years.
The Institution of Surveyors of Uganda’s constitution stipulates that voting for the president is not direct but done at the vice president level. In other words, the vice president becomes the president-elect and automatically takes over the office when the president’s term expires after two years.
The two-day event was officiated by the vice president, Hon. Jessica Alupo, ministers Judith Nabakooba for Lands Housing and Urban Development, Dr Sam Mayanja for Lands, professionals, and members of the business community.
Mayanja, in his address, thanked the NRM government for its commendable approaches in ensuring a conducive economic environment that is attributable to the prevailing peace and security.
He noted that professions such as surveying can now grow in both market relevancy and the number of trained and registered professionals.
However, he also acknowledged that much needs to be done to review the legal framework for surveyors, engage line ministries such as the Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development, Ministry of Works and Transport, and Ministry of Water and Environment, and ensure that the profession is a crucial part of the country’s development.
In his inauguration speech, Gonza thanked Dr Kibwami for his selfless service, generosity, and cooperation throughout his tenure.
He also pledged to work with the 32nd governance council and the Surveyor’s Registration Board (SRB) to address challenges faced by surveyors.
These challenges include delays surveyors face while processing their work, high cases of indiscipline among land surveyors and valuers, multiple titling, overlapping titles, over-valuations of property, price undercutting among professionals, and stealing jobs from one another.
Other challenges include individualism, hatred, and staling of the SACCOs.
Gonza pledged to strive to end the petty grievances, recriminations, and worn-out dogmas that seem to sow seeds of discontent.
He emphasised that the profession is not a political party, and they must work together to reaffirm their ambitions.
He also promised to engage commercial banks on the bad terms they are giving to surveyors, work with the board to create ethical codes of conduct to govern their professions, and lobby and transform surveying in universities to meet the demands of a new age by working with heads of departments.
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