Bogus Surveyors

On top of service technicians illegally surveying land for financial gain, registered surveyors unscrupulously render their services to sign off documents and receive a slice of the payment.

Department's general surveyor Asakaia Tabuabisataki said the department was aware of such unethical behaviours by some registered surveyors and technicians.

Mr Tabuabisataki said clients lodge their complaints with the department when they were duped by technicians or surveyors, paying money for an incomplete surveying of their property.

"It's a scam and an existing problem," he said. Concerns raised with us indicate that the problem continues to happen in certain areas around Viti Levu.

Cases involving technicians are transferred to the Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission (FCCC) for further investigation. If found serious, cases are escalated and taken to court.

FCCC is the only statutory body that is legislated to investigate and prosecute cases of technicians involved in unethical surveying methods.

Questions sent to FCCC last week remain unanswered.

In the case involving registered surveyors, the Surveyors Registration Board, chaired by Mr Tabuabisataki, investigates the matter and take necessary actions, which includes deregistering of surveyors.

Mr Tabuabisataki said over the years the board had deregistered surveyors because of unprofessional and unethical behaviour.

A services technical carrying out illegal surverying of a property in Suva.

Unless and until surveyors provide a justification of completion of work within the timeframe allocated by the board, the board will not reinstate their surveyors' license.

Complaints received at the department from August to April this year has a monetary value of $3000. However, there have been cases where complaints were valued at $15,000 or more.

In most instances, a single surveyor or technician is implicated in multiple complaints.

Mr Tabuabisataki said to date, only one registered surveyor was deregistered. The surveyor, who owns a surveying and construction company, has an ongoing court case.

The court case is not directly associated with the deregistration of the surveyor, but the incomplete construction work carried out by his construction company.

The surveyor, who has about 30 years' experience, is also implicated in several complaints lodged by clients relating to obtaining money without completing surveying of properties around Suva, which has a combined value of more than $40,000.

"He [surveyor] has completed a few works progressively, and we've monitored the work. Other surveyors are also being engaged to complete some of the work," Mr Tabua bisataki said.

TECHNICIANS AND SURVEYORS

Legally, technicians can only operate under a surveying company with a registered surveyor as the director or principal surveyor.

Technicians, under close monitoring by the registered surveyor, pletion of work.

Mr Tabuabisataki said at times work was not completed because the client needed to undertake necessary development on the property such as road, electricity and water connections.

"These are necessary developments for the surveyor to survey the property," he said.

Surveying a quarter acre residential lot is priced around $3000 or more. For a two-lot subdivision, it costs more than $5000.

Surveying costs are estimated ac-cording to the location of the property, the salary and number of people involved in the work.

LOOPHOLES

Mr Tabuabisataki said there were a lot of loopholes in the past that al-lowed for unethical behaviours to penetrate the system.

He said the department was working on tightening any loopholes especially monitoring of work by the board and the surveyor.

"The surveyor general needs to have a proper list of names and ad-dresses of technicians who are operating under a registered survey they work with," he said, adding this was vital when a technician decides to move from one surveyor to another.

"We must ensure they comply with the Employment Act, they must be employed by the state, to the extent of checking their deductions to the Fiji National Provident Fund."

Mr Tabuabisataki said they had also shortened their turnaround time for processing surveying plan to three months.

Labelling the illegal act as a scam, Mr Tabuabisataki highlighted their awareness efforts in ensuring the right message was communicated to the public that they were not allowed to engage any bogus surveyors.

Mr Tabuabisataki urges members of the public to be vigilant when engaging the services of land surveyors.

He reiterates that complaints regarding registered surveyors are to be lodged with the department, and for service technicians, complaints are to be lodged with the FCCC.

Feedback: ivamere.nataro@fijisun.com.fj