Building act still outdated: Architect Institute

David Rovou taking his oath of office.

By MATTHEW VARI

Sunday, November 27, 2016 (Sunday Chronicle, PNG)

PRESIDENT of Institute of Architects PNG (IAPNG) and board member of the PNG Board of Architects, David Rovou, has maintained that the Papua New Guinea Building Act still needs to be reviewed.

He made the comments when referring to the changes in the building industry environment in the country and the need to looks at the changes that have occurred and be on par with the rest of the world.

“There is no secret that our building act is actually outdated hasn’t been renewed,” Mr Rovou said of the 1971 act.

“There has been calls from the industry for the building act to incorporate sustainable practices as well as also occupational health and safety aspects and other things that need to be incorporated in the building act.”

“At this point in time we have had some discussions with our sister organisations like the IAPNG and Institute of Builders and Surveyors- there was a workshop held in 2014 where all those professional came together to discuss issues of cross cutting concern.”

He said the issue of the building act regulations continues to be a hurdle that hinders the work and organizations like the PNG Board of Architects.

“So when it comes to enforcing it to international standards you will find that some of our standards are way behind.”

“If you think about the Australians, who have the building code of Australia which is updated almost every two years, whereas, ours that is the one taken from the colonial administration adapted from the Queensland state level act and has been there ever since- with no real major changes.”

“One of the things we are looking at is that once we strengthen the board then the board will look at those associated areas of our profession like the building act to see how we can work with those stakeholders to amend those,” Mr Rovou said.