President Ali – Guyana to establish Land Surveying Institution to serve entire Region – President Ali

Five certified Land Surveyors has been added to the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC), who took their oath to serve diligently, during a swearing-in ceremony at State House, Wednesday morning before President Ifraan Ali.

It was revealed that Elijah Persaud, Royston Washington, Tedwin Roach, Marc Nicholson and Terron Roberts were sworn in after completing the Land Surveyors Examination, as required by Section Seven of the Land Surveyors Act, Chapter 97:01.

Ali charged the new batch of professionals to show compassion and exercise tremendous competence while delivering their services.   The President noted that the oath brings a high degree of honesty and integrity.

“Decision that you make impact the lives of generations of people…the power that you have is a power not to take lightly. Whenever you have the power through an instrument that can affect the lives of people positively or negatively, it brings an additional layer of responsibility to you that you exercise that power with great care, responsibility and a sense of honesty and dignity which the profession requires,” Ali said.

The President revealed that the Government has started assessing several options to provide opportunities for persons desirous of achieving higher education in the profession.

“Our vision is to create a land surveying institution in this country that would provide services for the entire Caribbean and Latin America. We must be in a position in three years to have such a skilled based that we could be tendering in every other jurisdiction to provide surveying work,” he stressed.

President Ali disclosed that the revenues from the booming oil and gas sector will help position the nation, ensuring that investments are made in the right technology.

As such, the funds earned will also strengthen the human resources and get the necessary certification, allowing the country to compete at a different level.

The President noted that moving forward, he proposed that three manuals must be developed in the areas of mathematics, writing skills and language and geography/landscape.

“Before you advance on to the programme itself you must pass the basic testing in these three areas. So, it forces potential surveyors to pay attention to these three important skill areas that are required,” Ali said.

The Head of State disclosed that with the additional Surveyors being certified, Guyana now boasts some 603 land mapping specialists, since 1892. The same register which existed since then will record the new names.

Meanwhile, Commissioner of GL&SC, Enrique Monize stressed that Land Surveyors are usually the first person on the land, and have the responsibility of providing the cadastral, typographic and other engineering data that guides the execution of projects.

“We as Surveyors and mapping specialists must be prepared to ensure that we can deliver quality survey service to support the development of the country,” Monize said.

It was pointed out that the successful 2022 graduates were tested in the areas of surveying theory, measurement science, field astronomy and mathematics.