A
few years ago I wrote about construction safety in Uganda and particularly
emphasized there is a need to rethink construction in Uganda with a particular
focus on safety on sites. I
highlighted then that construction site accidents are not new and that studies
show that site accidents tend to increase as the economy expands. I noted that we were fortunate
that we could learn from others who have gone through this period and how they
solved this problem. United
Kingdom, Japan, USA, Malaysia and most recently China have all experienced this
problem and there is ample literature on how this was tackled. Since that article, there have been
more accidents on construction sites especially in Kampala – we don’t seem to
have reports on site accidents elsewhere if they do happen.
I
have noted on several occasions that as soon as a building collapses, finger
pointing begins which usually culminates into an inquiry. I must admit that I have only read a
few of the reports from such inquiries and I don’t remember if there were any
concrete recommendations on how this problem that is now blighting the industry
should be tackled. Usually the
reports satisfy the curiosity of the public opinion by apportioning blame as to
who was responsible for the accident and that’s where everything ends. Many times the inquests have concluded that there was no
competent person in-charge of the works, never mind that drawings for most of
these projects are produced by registered architects and engineers.
Conventionally
construction site safety lies with all people involved in the project. The developer is obliged to appoint
qualified professionals to handle the entire project. The architect and engineer
at design stage must ensure that the works can be executed safely. The contractor must make certain that
the materials (by extension involving the suppliers) and execution methods
comply with the safety and health standards in place. The local authority after approving the drawings and issuing
a building permit must periodically inspect the works to make certain that they
are executed as per drawings and specifications submitted. In brief every player in the industry
must be involved in order to have a project safely completed. However, that is only true in an ideal
situation, not in the Uganda of today where everything seems to have long
collapsed before the buildings themselves started collapsing.
Many
people talk about collapse of buildings forgetting that much of the industry
collapsed first before the structures themselves started collapsing. Very few developers appoint qualified
architects and engineers to handle their development projects and even those
who do, usually appoint them for the design stage and simply because the local
authorities will not accept the designs/drawings if they are not stamped (yes
stamped not necessarily designed) by qualified professionals. If you have noted this where the
collapse in the system that I have alluded to begins. To the uninitiated, this may not be obvious and I will try
to clarify it.
The
developer is not appointing a qualified professional because of their ability
and experience but because their stamp will see the drawings receive a nod of
approval from the local authority – which in many cases they get unless the
authority has concerns with other things like land ownership. The professionals have not actually
designed or overseen the design and production of these drawings but have
merely ‘stamped’ them because that’s all they could be paid for - after all
they wont be responsible for supervising the project. In the end everybody is happy, the developer who has
paid a tenth (many times less) of what he should have paid to qualified
professionals, the unqualified person who has pocketed the biggest chunk of the
paltry fees, the qualified professional who has been paid handsomely for a 5
minute job (how long can pressing an inked embossment over blue prints take)
and the local authority who have pocketed their building fees without having
really subjecting the project proposal to the scrutiny it deserves merely
because it was stamped by a registered or qualified professional. As you can see the whole system
collapsed as soon as the developer started cutting corners. The checks and
balances that were wisely put in place by those who came before us have been
compromised because by people in those positions (registered professionals and
local authority officials) because their pockets are lined and responsibility
does not squarely lie with them.
The qualified architect/engineer has taken money for ‘stamping drawings’
because he/she knows they wont be the ones to supervise the project and should
those drawings have a problem or indeed should the building collapse, they
cannot be held liable. The local
authority has abdicated it’s responsibility by accepting and approving the
drawings without carrying out the necessary inspections simply because they
were submitted by a registered architect/engineer – who as you remember knows
that he will not be responsible for the construction. Once the local
authorities have approved the drawings, developers are free to do what they
want and the first thing they do is to avoid registered architects and
engineers for the supervision of construction. If they were engaged at the design stage, they are promptly
sacked and the developer appoints his trusted ‘contractor’ who in many cases
may not have the capacity to handle works of that magnitude. The local
authority further compounds matters by not carrying out the mandatory periodic
site inspections, although to be fair to most councils, they argue that the
hearts and minds are willing but their bodies are not facilitated to carry out
these inspections. The end result of
all this is a collapsed building and that’s when the wheels of the blame game
set into motion.
What
happens next? The relevant
authorities set up a commission of inquiry to quell the disquiet among the
public and soon the press stops making a fuss of the whole thing. If we are lucky, the inquiry is
completed in about 6 months and a report is submitted, end of. No lessons learnt, no recommendations
made and I am almost certain no body has been charged and convicted for
professional negligence as a result of a collapsed building – not the
architects, engineers, developers or their accomplices at the local
authorities. I am appalled that every two years we have a building accident and
we go through the same routine without an effort to learn from the past. It is my opinion that the collapse in
the building industry must be addressed first before we can think of addressing
the collapse of the structures.
After
the old Kampala City Council worked with the associations of building
professionals to ensure that all drawings submitted for planning approval are
handled by registered architects and engineers, most developers had no
alternative but to engage registered professionals, although some developers
still find a way around this unfortunately with the connivance of some
unscrupulous professionals. It is
a well known fact that before this effort developers avoided registered
architects and engineers and that is how we ended up with 5-8 storey buildings
in the heart of the city without lifts or ample parking space. That not withstanding, a step in the
right direction was made. We should now look at a way of working together to
encourage the same developers to follow the rules in hiring competent
contractors and professionals during the actual construction.
Most
of the reports from the inquiries into previous accidents indicate that almost
all accidents are not the consequence of poor design but rather unsafe site
conditions, unsafe actions by operatives and lack of management control. The laws that are required in place now
should be mainly to do with management of construction sites and the
responsibility of developers and contractors for the safety of the public and
operatives. The professionals
associations and registration boards should stop handling ‘stampers’ with kids
gloves and deal with them determinedly. Heavy punishments should be meted out
to those who indulge in this dissipated behaviour and only then shall we claim
to be tackling the problem. The
councils should require all developers to submit the names of the registered
professionals supervising their developments and mandatory stage inspections
must be diligently carried out, if this means raising the building approval
fees, so be it. There is a need to
register all contractors nationally in categories, so that different categories
of contractors handle different magnitudes of works. This business of ‘muzimbi
wange azimba bulungi’ when all he has ever done is oversee the construction
of your double storied house must be brought to an end.
