Group pushes for legislation on facility management
The leadership of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA)-Ghana Chapter has paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, to discuss ways to promote good maintenance practices in the country.
The meeting was also to discuss the need for the passage of a legislation to streamline facility management in every organisation.
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Facility management is a profession that focused on maintaining the integrity of buildings, as well as managing the operations of the building and controlling its effect on the environment.
At the meeting, the President of the IFMA-Ghana Chapter, Sampson Opare-Agyemang, highlighted the role of facility managers to include ensuring that facilities, whether residential, commercial, industrial or tourism, lived to their expected life span.
He said it was the responsibility of facility managers to ensure that prior to the construction of any building, all the necessary documentation for maintaining the facility and safety measures were put in place.
He, however, lamented the poor maintenance practices and the consequent deteriorating nature of some public facilities, and attributed it to the lack of facility managers.
“Most public facilities have been left to deteriorate and some have even become death traps. This is as a result of the absence of facility managers who will see to the functionality of these buildings, people and the process,” he said.
Facility manager
Mr Opare-Agyemang indicated that the IFMA’s contribution and advocacy toward promoting facility management in the country was crucial, and, therefore, called for a legislation to streamline the profession.
He also called for the need to have a maintenance manual for every facility to serve as a guide to ensure safety within and outside a structure.
“One of the key issues that facility managers face most of the time is the absence of a maintenance manual that will aid the effective management of the building,” he said.
He added that "over the past years they had visited most technical universities and educated them on the need to start a course in Facility Management.
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Mr Asenso-Boakye expressed his commitment to work with the association to ensure that they achieved their objectives.
He referenced some structures constructed in primeval days in other countries that had stood the test of time, and expressed the belief that it was as a result of good maintenance practices.
He commended the leadership of IFMA for the effort over the years in ensuring that the majority of structures in the country were in good standing, and further encouraged them to keep promoting facility management in the country.