The House of Representatives is this afternoon set to start debating the long-awaited Building Act which, in addition to a national building code and the prevention of squatter settlements, includes a provision that is being strongly opposed by professional architects and engineers.According to a spokesman for architects, Christopher Whyms-Stone, the long-standing concern that the proposed legislation will empower draftsmen to provide similar services to architects and engineers under the new designation of ‘Building Practitioners’ has still not been addressed in the new Bill.
The architects and engineers first voiced their concern when the Bill was introduced in 2011.
“We have been reliably informed that the driving factor for the intention to register draftspersons as independent ‘building practitioners’ is to capture that category of persons into the tax net,” Whyms-Stone told the Jamaica Observer yesterday. “Public and national interest were not large concerns, as we have been led to believe.”
Chairman of Architects Registration Board (ARB) Robert V Woodstock confirmed that there were outstanding matters that need to be addressed.
“There is a need to expressly recognise existing professional registration Acts, and if in conflict, the Building Act should cease to have effect in that area,” Woodstock recommended.
He said that the definition of the term “building practitioner” in the new Bill includes the word “design”, which architects see as in conflict with the Architects Registration Act (ARA), as “building practitioners” would be allowed to operate as architects.
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