QUANTITY SURVEYORS (REGISTRATION, ETC.) ACT

There is hereby established a body to be known as the Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria (in this Act referred to as "the Board") which shall be a body corporate by the name aforesaid and be charged with the general duty of-(a) determining who are quantity surveyors for the purposes of this Act;
(b) determining what standards of knowledge and skill are to be attained by persons seeking to become registered as quantity surveyors and raising those standards from time to time as circumstances may permit;
(c) securing in accordance with the provisions of this Act the establishment and maintenance of a register of persons entitled to practise as quantity surveyors and the publication from time to time of lists of those persons;
(d) regulating and controlling the practice of the quantity surveying profession in all its aspects and ramifications;
(e) performing such other functions that may be conferred on the Board by this Act.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Board shall consist of the following members, that is-
(a) one person who shall be the president of the Board;
(b) five persons to be appointed by the Minister of whom one shall be appointed from the Ministry under his control and the other person from amongst other interests in the field of quantity surveying covered by this Act, which in his opinion are not adequately represented;
(c) five persons elected by the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors in the manner for the time being provided by the constitution of that body;
(d) four persons to represent the universities and other institutions of higher education (including technical colleges) offering courses leading to an approved qualification in Nigeria having faculties of quantity surveying, each institution having not more than one representative at a time.
(2)
The provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the qualifications and tenure of office of members of the Board, powers and procedure of the Board and the other matters therein mentioned.
[First Schedule.]

(1) The Board shall prepare and submit to the Minister not later than 30 June of the year in which this Act comes into force (so however that for that year the Minister may if he considers it necessary extend the period) and of each subsequent year estimate of its expenditure and income during the next succeeding financial year.
(2) The Board shall keep proper records in respect of each financial year and proper records in relation to these accounts, and shall cause the accounts to be audited as soon as may be after the end of the financial year to which the accounts relate.

(1) The Minister may give to the Board directions of a general character or relating generally to particular matters (but not to any individual person or case) with regard to the exercise by the Board of its functions and it shall be the duty of the Board to comply with the directions.
(2)
Before giving a direction under subsection (1) of this section, the Minister shall serve a copy of the proposed direction on the Board and shall afford the Board an opportunity of making representations to him with respect to the direction; and after considering any representations made to him in pursuance of this subsection, the Minister may give the direction either without modification, or with such modifications as appear to him to be appropriate having regard to the representations.

(1) The Board shall appoint a fit and proper person to be the registrar for the purposes of this Act.
(2) The registrar shall prepare and maintain in accordance with rules made by the Board under this section a register of the names, addresses and approved qualifications, and of such other particulars as may be specified, of all persons who are entitled in accordance with the provisions of this Act to be registered as quantity surveyors and who apply in the specified manner to be so registered.
(3) The register of quantity surveyors (hereinafter in this Act referred to as "the register") shall consist of two parts of which one shall be in respect of temporarily registered persons.
(4) Subject to the following provisions of this section, the Board shall make rules with respect to the form and keeping of the register and making of entries therein, and in particular-
(a) regulating the making of applications for registration and providing for the evidence to be produced in support of any such application;
(b) providing for the notification to the registrar by the person to whom any registered particulars relate, of any change in those particulars;
(c) authorising a registered person to have any qualification which is in relation to the relevant division of the profession, whether an approved qualification or an accepted qualification for the purposes of section 7 (2) (b) of this Act registered in relation to his name in addition to or as he may elect, in substitution for any other qualification so registered;
(d) specifying the fees to be paid to the Board in respect of the entry of names on the register and authorising the registrar to refuse to enter a name on the register until any fee specified for the entry has been paid;
(e) specifying anything falling to be specified under the foregoing provisions of this section,
but rules made for the purposes of paragraph (d) of this subsection shall not come into force until they are confirmed by order of the Minister.
(5) The register shall-
(a) correct, in accordance with the Board's directions, any entry in the register which the Board directs him to correct as being in the Board's opinion an entry which was incorrectly made;
(b) make from time to time any necessary alterations to the registered particulars of registered persons;
(c) remove from the part of the register, which relates to temporarily registered person, all particulars relating to a person registered in the other part of that register or relating to persons ceasing for any reason to be entitled to be so temporarily registered.
(6) If the registrar-
(a)
sends by post to any registered person a registered letter addressed to him at his address on the register enquiring whether the registered particulars relating to him are correct and receives no reply to the letter within the period of six months from the date of posting it; and
(b) upon the expiration of that period sends in like manner to the person in question a second similar letter within three months from the date of posting it,
the registrar may remove the particulars relating to the person in question from the relevant part of the register; but the Board may direct the registrar to restore to the appropriate part of the register any particulars removed therefrom under this subsection.

(1) The registrar shall-
(a) cause the register to be printed, published, and put on sale to members of the public not later than two years from the beginning of the year in which this Act comes into force; and
(b) in each year after a register has been published under paragraph (a) of this subsection cause to be printed, published and put on sale as aforesaid either a corrected edition of the register or a list of alterations made to the register since it was last printed; and
(c) cause a print of each edition of the register and each list of corrections to be deposited at the principal offices of the Board,
and the Board shall keep the register and lists so deposited open at all reasonable times for inspection by members of the public.
(2) A document purporting to be a print of an edition of a register published under this section by authority of the registrar in the current year, or documents purporting to be prints of an edition of a register so published in a previous year and of a list of corrections to that edition so published in the current year, shall (without prejudice to any other mode of proof) be admissible in any proceedings as evidence that any person specified in the document, or the documents read together, as being fully or temporarily registered is so registered, and that any person not so specified is not so registered.

(1) Subject to section 18 of this Act and to rules made under section 5 (4) of this Act, a person shall be entitled to be fully registered as a quantity surveyor under this Act if-
(a) he has attended a course of training approved by the Board under section 9 of this Act; and
(b) the course was conducted at an institution so approved, or partly at one such institution and partly at another or others;
(c) he holds a qualification so approved; and
(d) he holds a certificate of experience issued in pursuance of section 11 of this Act.
(2) Subject as aforesaid, a person shall also be entitled to be fully registered under this Act if he satisfies the Board-
(a) that he is of good character;
(b) that he holds a qualification granted outside Nigeria and for the time being accepted by the Board for the purposes of this subsection as respect the quantity surveying profession; and
(c) that in the country in which the qualification was granted he was under no legal disability in the practice of quantity surveying; and
(d) if the Board so requires, that he has sufficient practical experience in quantity surveying,
and the Board shall from time to time, publish in the Federal Gazetle, particulars of the qualifications for the time being accepted as aforesaid.
(3) Subject as aforesaid, a person shall be entitled to be temporarily registered under this Act in the cases specified in section 14 of this Act.

Notwithstanding section 7 (1) of this Act but subject to section 11 and to rules made under section 5 (4) of this Act, a person shall be entitled to be fully registered under this Act if-
(a) he has, by the date of his application for registration, had not less than seven years practical experience in quantity surveying;
(b) the level and quality of the said practical experience are such that they are acceptable to the Board;
(c) by the date of the said application he is not less than 35 years of age;
(d) he is of good character; and
(e) the Board considers that he is otherwise a fit and proper person to be registered.

(1) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, the Board may approve for the purpose of section 7 of this Act-
(a) any course of training which is intended for persons who are seeking to become, or are already members of the quantity surveying profession, and which the Board considers is designed to confer on persons completing it, sufficient knowledge and skill for the practice of that profession or for the practice as members of a specialised branch of that profession;
(b) any institution either in Nigeria or elsewhere, which the Board considers is properly organised and equipped for conducting the whole or any part of a course of training approved by the Board; or
(c) any qualification which, as a result of an examination taken in conjunction with the course of training approved by the Board under this section, is granted to candidates reaching a standard at the examination indicating in the opinion of the Board that they have sufficient knowledge and skill to practise quantity surveying as a profession.
(2) The Board shall from time to time publish in the Federal Gazette a list of qualifications, courses and institutions in the profession of quantity surveying approved by it, and subject thereto the Board shall not approve for the purposes of subsection (1) (b) of this section, a qualification granted by an institution in Nigeria unless the qualification has been so published by the Board.
(3) The Board may, if it thinks fit, withdraw any approval given under this section in respect of any course, qualification or institution; but before withdrawing such an approval, the Board shall-
(a) give notice that it proposes to do so to persons appearing to the Board to be persons by whom the course is conducted or the qualification is granted or the institution is controlled, as the case may be;
(b) afford each such person an opportunity of making to the Board representations with regard to the proposal; and
(c) take into consideration any representations made in relation to proposal in pursuance of subsection (4) of this section.
(4) As respects any period during which the approval of the Board under this section is withdrawn, such course, institution or qualification shall not be treated as approved under this section.
(5) Notwithstanding subsection (4) of this section, the withdrawal of any approval shall not prejudice the registration of eligibility for registration of any person who by virtue of the approval was registered or eligible for registration (either unconditionally or subject to his obtaining a certificate of experience) immediately before the approval was withdrawn.
(6) The giving or withdrawal of an approval under this section shall have effect from such date, after the execution of the instrument signifying the giving or withdrawal of the approval, as the Board may specify in that instrument and the Board shall-
(a) as soon as may be publish a copy of every such instrument in the Federal Gazette; and
(b) not later than seven days before its publication as aforesaid, send a copy of the instrument to the Minister for approval.

(1) The Board shall keep itself informed of the nature of-
(a) the instruction given at approved institutions to persons attending an approved course of training;
(b) the examinations as a result of which approved qualifications are granted,
and for the purposes of performing that duty, the Board may appoint either from among its own members or otherwise, persons to visit approved institutions or to attend such examinations.
(2) A visitor appointed under subsection (1) of this section shall report to the Board on-
(a) the sufficiency of the instruction given to persons attending approved courses of training at institutions visited by him;
(b) the sufficiency of the examinations attended by him; and
(c) any other matter relating to the institutions or examinations on which the Board may, either generally or in a particular case, request him to report,
but no visitor shall interfere with the giving of any instruction or the holding of any examination.
(3) On receiving a report made in pursuance of this section, the Board shall as soon as may be thereafter send a copy of the report to the person appearing to the Board to be in charge of the institution or responsible for the examinations to which the report relates, requesting that person to make observations on the report within such period as may be specified in the request, not being less than thirty days beginning with the date of the request.

(1) A person who, after obtaining an approved qualification, satisfies the conditions mentioned in subsection (2) of this section, shall be entitled to receive free of charge a certificate of experience in the prescribed form from the person in charge of the establishment, undertaking or organisation mentioned in that subsection.
(2) The conditions aforesaid are-
(a) he shall have been employed as a quantity surveyor for the prescribed period in Nigeria with a view to obtaining a certificate of experience;
(b) he shall have acquired during his employment practical experience under the previous supervision and guidance of one or more registered quantity surveyors for such periods as may be prescribed; and
(c)
the manner in which he carried out the duties of his employment and his conduct during the period of his employment shall have been satisfactory.
(3) The employer (being a registered quantity surveyor) supervising the work of person employed with a view to obtaining a certificate of experience shall ensure that any such person is afforded proper opportunities of acquiring the practical experience required for the purposes of subsection (2) (b) of this section.
(4) Where, after having served his time as mentioned in subsection (2) (a) of this section, a person is refused a certificate of experience he shall be entitled-
(a) to receive from his employer particulars in writing specifying the grounds of the refusal; and
(b) to appeal from the refusal to a Committee of the Board in accordance with rules made by the Board in that behalf (including rules as to the time within which appeals are to be brought),
and on any such appeal the Committee shall either dismiss the appeal or issue the certificate of experience in question or give such other directions in the matter as it considers just.
(5) Regulations may provide for the issue of certificates of experience in respect of employment and institutions outside Nigeria.

(1) There shall be a Committee to be known as the Registered Quantity Surveyors Disciplinary Committee (in this Act referred to as "the Disciplinary Committee") which shall be charged with the duty of considering and determining any case referred to it by the Panel established by the following provisions of this section and any other case of which the Disciplinary Committee has cognisance under the following provisions of this Act.
(2) The Disciplinary Committee shall consist of the president of the Board and eight other members of the Board appointed by the Board, and shall include not less than four members of the Board holding office by virtue of paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of section 2 of this Act or, where the number of those members is for the time being less than four, all those members.
(3) There shall be a body, to be known as the Registered Quantity Surveyors Investigating Panel (in this Act referred to as "the Panel") which shall be charged with the duty of-
(a) conducting a preliminary investigation into any case where it is alleged that a person fully or temporarily registered has misbehaved in his capacity as such, or should for any other reason be the subject of proceedings before the Disciplinary Committee;
(b) deciding whether the case should be referred to the Disciplinary Committee.
(4) The Panel shall be appointed by the Board and shall consist of five members and three registered quantity surveyors who are not members of the Board.
(5)
The provisions of the Second Schedule to this Act shall, so far as applicable to the Disciplinary Committee and the Panel respectively, have effect with respect to those bodies.
[Second Schedule.]

(1) Where-
(a) a person fully registered under this Act is convicted by any court or tribunal in Nigeria or elsewhere having power to award imprisonment for an offence (whether or not it is an offence punishable with imprisonment) which in the opinion of the Disciplinary Committee is incompatible with the status of a registered quantity surveyor; or
(b) a person temporarily registered under this Act is likewise so convicted in circumstances such that the Board is satisfied that his name ought to be removed from the register; or
(c) the Disciplinary Committee is satisfied that the name of any person has been fraudulently registered,
the Disciplinary Committee may, if it thinks fit, give a direction reprimanding that person, or suspending him for such period as the Disciplinary Conunittee may deem fit, if fully registered or, whether or not fully registered, ordering the registrar to strike his name off the relevant part of the register.
(2) The Disciplinary Committee may, if it thinks fit, defer or further defer its decision as to the giving of a direction under subsection (1) of this section until a subsequent meeting of the Disciplinary Committee; but-
(a) no decision shall be deferred under this subsection for periods exceeding two years in the aggregate; and
(b) no person shall be a member of the Disciplinary Committee for the purposes of reaching a decision which has been deferred or further deferred unless he was present as a member of the Disciplinary Committee when the decision was deferred.
(3) For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, a person shall not be treated as convicted as mentioned in paragraph (b) of that subsection unless the conviction stands at a time when no appeal or further appeal is pending or may (without extension of time) be brought in connection with the conviction.
(4) When the Disciplinary Committee gives a direction under subsection (1) of this section, the Disciplinary Committee shall cause notice of the direction to be served on the person to whom it relates.
(5) The person to whom such a direction relates may, at any time within 28 days from the date of service on him of the notice of the direction, appeal against the direction to the Federal High Court; and the Disciplinary Committee may appear as respondent to the appeal and, for the purpose of enabling directions to be given as to the costs of the appeal and of proceedings before the Disciplinary Committee, shall be deemed to be a party thereto whether or not it appears on the hearing of the appeal.
(6) A direction of the Disciplinary Committee under subsection (1) of this section shall take effect-
(a) where no appeal under this section is brought against the direction within the time limited for the appeal, on the expiration of that time; or
(b) where an appeal is brought and is withdrawn or struck out for want of prosecution, on the withdrawal or striking out of the appeal; or
(c) where such an appeal is brought and is not withdrawn or struck out as aforesaid, if and when the appeal is dismissed; and not otherwise howsoever.
(7) A person whose name is removed from the register in pursuance of a direction of the Disciplinary Committee under this section, shall not be entitled to be registered again except in pursuance of a direction in that behalf given by the Disciplinary Committee on the application of that person; and a direction under this section for the removal of a person's name from the register may prohibit an application under this subsection by that person until the expiration of such period from the date of the direction (and where he has duly made such an application from the date of his last application) as may be specified in the direction.

(1) Where a person satisfies the Board-
(a) that he has been selected for employment for a specified period in a capacity in which a person fully registered as quantity surveyor under this Act would normally be employed and that he is or intends to be in Nigeria temporarily for the purposes of serving for that period in the employment in question; and
(b) that he holds, or has passed examinations necessary for obtaining some qualification granted outside Nigeria which is for the time being accepted by the Board for the purposes of this section as respects the capacity in which, if employed, he is to serve,
the Board may, if it thinks fit, give a direction that he shall be temporarily registered as a quantity surveyor.
(2) The temporary registration of a person shall continue only while he is in such employment as is mentioned in subsection (1) (a) of this section and shall cease-
(a) on the termination of the period of employment specified to the period whichever first occurs; or
(b) on the termination of the said employment before the end of that period whichever comes first:
Provided that nothing in this subsection shall preclude the Board from giving a further direction under subsection (1) of this section in respect of a specified period whose commencement coincides with the termination of another such period.
(3) A person who is temporarily registered shall, in relation to his employment as mentioned in subsection (1) (a) of this section and to things done or omitted to be done in the course of that employment, be deemed to be fully registered, but in relation to all other matters he shall be treated as not so registered.
(4) In case of doubt as to whether a person's employment has terminated, the decision of the Board shall be conclusive for the purposes of subsection (2) of this section.
(5) Nothing in this section shall have effect to exempt any person temporarily registered as a quantity surveyor pursuant to this section from payment of any annual practising fee prescribed under this Act.
(6) The registrar, as directed from time to time by the Board, shall remove from the register the name of any person ceasing to be entitled to the benefit of this section.

(1) If any person who is not a registered quantity surveyor-
(a) for or in expectation of reward practises or holds himself out to practise as a registered quantity surveyor; or
(b) without reasonable excuse takes or uses any name, title, addition or description implying that he is authorised by law to practise as a registered quantity Surveyor,
he shall be guilty of an offence.
(2) Any person on the temporary register who, otherwise than in accordance with section 14 of this Act-
(a) for or in expectation of reward, practises or holds himself out to practise as a registered quantity surveyor; or
(b) without reasonable excuse takes, or uses any name, title, addition or description implying that he is authorised by law to practise as a registered quantity surveyor,
shall be guilty of an offence.
(3) If any person, for the purpose of procuring the registration of any name, qualification or other matter-
(a) makes a statement which he knows to be false in a material particular; or
(b) recklessly makes a statement which is false in a material particular, he shall be guilty of an offence.
(4) If the registrar or any other person employed by the Board wilfully makes any falsification in any matter relating to the register he shall be guilty of an offence.
(5) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on conviction in a High Court to a fine not exceeding N500,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to both such fine and imprisonment.
(6) Where an offence under this section which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or, to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary, or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person purporting to act in any such capacity, he, as well as the body corporate, shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

(1) Subject to the following provisions of this section, a person shall not hold an appointment requiring status as a registered quantity surveyor under this Act in the public service of the Federation or a State or in the armed forces of the Federation unless he is a quantity surveyor registered under this Act or is otherwise exempted.
(2) A registered quantity surveyor under this Act shall, but to the extent only of his particular qualifications, be entitled to practise as a registered quantity surveyor throughout the Federation.
(3) It shall be the duty of the person in charge of each university or other institutions of higher education (including technical colleges) having attached thereto a faculty or department (howsoever called) of quantity surveying in the Federation at which there is held a course of training intended for persons who are seeking to become registered quantity surveyors under this Act to furnish to the registrar, not later than 31 March in every year, a list of the names and of such other particulars as the Board may by order specify, of all persons who attended any such course at the institution in question at any time during the preceding year.

Without prejudice to any rule of law whereby a contract may be avoided for inconsistency with an enactment, a person other than a fully registered quantity surveyor shall not be entitled to recover by process of law, fees or other valuable consideration whatsoever in respect of any act, matter or thing done or omitted to be done by his intended pursuance of any contract while purporting to act as a registered quantity surveyor.

The Minister shall have power to make regulations, rules or orders and these shall include power-(a) to make provision for such incidental and supplementary matters as he may from time to time consider expedient for the purposes of this Act; and
(b) to make different provision for different circumstance.

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-
"approved" means for the time being approved under section 9 of this Act;
"approved quantity surveyor qualification" means a qualification which is approved in respect of the quantity surveying profession;
"Board" means the Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria established by section 1 of this Act;
''Disciplinary Committee" has the meaning assigned to it by section 12 (1) of this Act;
"Minister" means the Minister charged with the general responsibility for matters relating to the quantity surveying profession;
"Panel" has the meaning assigned to it by section 12 (3) of this Act;
"prescribed" means prescribed by regulations made under this Act;
"public service" means public service of the Federation or of a State as defined in section 318 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999;
"register" means the register maintained under this Act; and
"registered" shall be construed accordingly;
"registrar" means the registrar appointed in pursuance of section 5 of this Act;
"regulations" means regulations made by the Minister.
(2) For the purposes of this Act-
(a) a person is fully registered if his name is for the time being entered in the part of the register maintained in respect of fully registered persons; and
(b) a person is temporarily registered if his name is for the time being entered in the other part of that register,
and "fully registered" and ''temporarily registered" shall be construed in accordance with paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection.
(3) Any approval, consent, direction, notice, observation, report, representation or request authorised or required to be given or made by or under this Act shall be in writing and may, without prejudice to any other method of service but subject to the provisions of rules made under paragraph 2 of the Second Schedule to this Act, be served by post.

This Act may be cited as the Quantity Surveyors (Registration, etc.) Act.