Lands and Surveys Commission to develop code of ethics for surveyors

– moves to improve relationships with regional administration in Region Six

Chief Executive Officer and Commissioner of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC), Trevor Benn announced the Commission is currently in the process of developing a code of ethics that will be used to guide and Police the work of land surveyors across Guyana.
Benn made this announcement during a community meeting, held on February 26, 2018, in Corriverton as part of a three-day outreach from February 25-27, to Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
This code of ethics, Benn said, is being drafted into a bill and tabled in the

National Assembly.
“People have been complaining about the way work has been done with surveying. So, we’re working on a bill that we hope to take to Cabinet and then to Parliament in relation to the work of surveyors; a new code of ethics that will govern the profession. At the moment, we don’t have any and so surveyors go out there and work without any real sanction for bad behaviour… We’re putting this bill in place to make sure that there is something we can go by and we don’t treat in an ad hoc manner the sanctioning of surveyors,” he said.
The Commission has held one consultation with surveyors in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and will continue consultations in all other administrative regions of Guyana. The consultation process is set to be completed at the end of

May, with the ultimate goal of completing the draft bill and presenting it to Cabinet in June 2018. Benn said the outreach was planned in response to an increasing number of land inquiries and complaints coming from Region Six.
Accompanied by a 10-person team from the Georgetown GLSC office, the Commissioner was able to listen to the issues of over 60 residents from Kildonan, Fyrish, Springlands, Corriverton, New Amsterdam, and their surrounding villages.
“At the Lands and Surveys Commission we take very seriously the work that we do and in order for us to be able to understand the issues affecting our work on a daily basis we have organised ourselves to do several outreaches across the country… We do these outreaches primarily because often the true picture of [what is] happening on the ground is unknown from the office. So, we come out with the staff to sit and air the views from the people themselves who live in the issues on a daily basis and who understand [them] better than we do… We can, together with them, find resolutions on the many issues,” the Lands Commissioner said during an interview at Dave’s Reception Hall, Chapel Street, New Amsterdam.
With the hope of healing Commission-municipal relations that may have been strained in the past, Benn made courtesy calls on Mayor of New Amsterdam, Winifred Haywood and Regional Chairman of Region Six, David Armogan.
We intend to do this wherever we do outreaches; to meet with the local authorities… to let them understand what… we are about, to let them understand the do’s and don’ts, and to let them understand how we can support them and vice versa… In the past, a lot of decisions were [made] without the involvement of these stakeholders… We believe [that] it was wrong, which is why I apologised to the Mayor and Town Council this morning and promised that in the future we will do better,” he said.
Mayor Haywood expressed her appreciation for the GLSC outreach and said she is happy to work to improve New Amsterdam’s relationship with the Commission.
As a result of the meetings, Commissioner Benn and a team from the Georgetown GLSC office will return to Berbice on March 10, to help conduct an occupational survey with the hope of solving land disputes in Kildonan. The Commissioner also met with GLSC branch offices in New Amsterdam and Corriverton and hosted a staff dinner in appreciation of their hard work.