NEW BILL SEEKS TO CHECK FALSE VALUATION, CHEATS

Parliament in session in Dodoma.

Valuers who provide false valuation or higher value than what the property or asset is worth will soon face the music as the government plans to table for the second time a Bill that will control and regulate valuation in the country.

Titled Valuation and Valuers Registration Bill 2016, it will also see the establishment of a Valuers Registration Board, which will be tasked with managing all matters pertaining to valuation, including issuing certificates to persons qualified to practise valuation.

The Board will also evaluate academic and practical qualification for the purpose of registration and exercise effective disciplinary control over the professional ethics and conduct of valuation in the country.

The Bill was presented for the first time during the national budget assembly and will be presented for the second time and is expected to be passed in parliament session expected to begin on September 6.

During a presentation of the Bill to members of the parliamentary committee on Land, Natural Resources and Tourism yesterday, the Acting Chief Government Valuer, Ms Evelyne Mugisha, said once passed into law, it will establish a board that will recognise through registration and issuing of certificates and numbers that will allow appraisers to execute their work in the country.

Ms Mugisha explained that they have been using different laws that have sections on valuation, but stressed that the new law once passed would make it easier to control appraiser reinforcing highest professional standards in the valuation field.

“The Board that will be established by the new law will recognize all appraisers and their qualifications… it will provide certificates and numbers that will identify that particular appraiser, that way anyone who will go against their professional ethics will be identified and punished,” she explained.

She noted that appraisers had been overvaluing properties so that the owners can access bigger loans, stressing that such move if not controlled by putting in place strict laws governing the profession, will throw the country into an economic crisis like what happened in the United States during the real estate bubble.

“Providing higher valuation of properties than their real value would eventually see the owner left with a large amount of debt in loans that they cannot pay and the property which they put up as collateral cannot actually service the loan because its value is much smaller than the loan received, eventually resulting to an economic crisis.

We want to ensure this and other wrong doings and shortcomings are controlled by the proposed Bill,” she explained. Ms Mugisha noted that the process to prepare the Bill started in 2005 and was completed in 2008, stressing that the Bill has also received inputs from different stakeholders.

Some of the stakeholders who provided inputs include the regional administration and local government (TAMISEMI), Ministries of Constitution and Legal Affairs, Public Service Management, Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Finance and Planning, Water and Irrigation, Industry, Trade and Investments and The Ministry of Land, Housing and Human Settlements Development.

Others are Ardhi University, private Valuers, banking and other financial institutions and the Tanzania Institution of Valuers and Estate Agents (TIVEA).

The Acting Chief Government Valuer explained that the current situation was very bad because the profession has been infiltrated by unqualified people who collude with property owners to provide wrong valuation to enable the owners get huge loans.

When contributing to the presentation, Special Seats Member of Parliament Silafu Maufi (CCM) pointed out that the amount allocated as penalties is small going by current standards, wanting the mount to be increased.

The Bill has proposed 20m/- for individual and 50m/- for companies as penalties. On his part, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Land, Natural Resources and Tourism, Engineer Atashasta Nditiye (Muhambwe-CCM) also said the penalty allocated was small compared to the work conducted by the appraisers.

The Deputy Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Ms Angelina Mabula, acknowledged that the amount allocated was small, noting that this will not deter appraiser from making mistakes.

“But if the amount is bigger the appraiser will respect their work and adhere to the law,” she added. Responding on the amount allocated as fine, Valuer Adam Yusuf said the amount proposed was enough to make appraisers in the country respect their work, noting that it is currently at 2m/- for individual appraisers and 5m/- for a company.

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