Building collapse: Don blames govt, contractors

The Chairman Committee of Directors of Works and Physical Planning of Nigerian Universities, Mohammed Aminu Sambo, a builder, has blamed all the tiers of government, contractors and professionals for the incessant and building collapse in the country.

He stated this in an interview with journalists in Abuja.

He said that the recent collapse of a three storey building in Lagos which claimed many lives and wounded several others was due to non-involvement of relevant professionals in the built environment.

He also blamed the procurement Act which says the lowest responsive bidder wins the contract, regardless of whether the rates are reasonable or not contributes to building collapse.

Sambo also identified corruption among some government elements who always conspire with contractors to defraud the government at the expense of standard and quality work.

He said: “Government which should be in the forefront of ensuring that quality is not always compromised in the discharge of any project that has to do with human lives, is most times indifferent on such matters which often end up causing the loss of lives of innocent souls and properties.”

The expert also identified greedy and unprofessional contractors who always patronize lower quality or inferior materials and employ the services of cheap labour all in their efforts to maximise profit at the expense of the lives of the people.

Sambo appealed to government to ensure that all the relevant agencies saddled with the responsibility of monitoring and ensuring compliance to standard during building constructions, are made to function and those found wanting punished to curb the building collapse menace.

The chairman advised clients to always employ the services of professionals to supervise all their buildings to ensure that quality is not compromised, and lives of potential occupants and construction workers as the case may be, are not put at risk.

He called on the government to critically look into “the issue of lowest responsive bidders stipulated in the public procurement Act of 2007 to ensure that emphasis is placed on the issue of rates provided by bidders, instead of the lowest responsive bidder criteria.”

“Government, contractors, professionals and clients must always take into consideration or ascertain integrity of the soil with regards to its bearing capacity before embarking on any construction, in order to come up with complete professional design of any building from sub-structure to super-structure,” Sambo advised.