03 Apr 2014

The Minister of Infrastructure, Science and Technology, Mr Johnie Swartz, presented to Parliament, the Architects’ Registration (Amendment) Bill on April 2.

He said there was an urgent need to amend the act in order to, amongst others, provide for the funding through subvention to the Architects’ Registration Council (ARC) and to extend the scope of registration to include architectural technologists and architectural drafts persons.

Mr Swartz said the proposed bill provided for an annual subvention from government. “The government subvention should remain available until such time that the council achieves self-sustainability,” he said.

The bill further proposed to amend the Architects Registration Act in order to incorporate the minimum qualifications for registration for architectural technologists and draftspersons. It also sought to amend the effect of registration in order to introduce practising certificates and to provide for annual fees for practising certificates.

The bill also proposed to provide for submission of architectural drawings for local authorities approval by registered architects only.

The proposed amendment bill would further allow for issuance of certificate of Registration by the Registrar, upon registering an architect, architectural technologist or architectural draftsperson, and the provision for payment of annual fees for practising certificates as well as ensuring that practising certificates expire at the end of 12 months from the date of issue.

“The practising certificate shall expire forthwith in the event the name of an architect, architectural technologist or architectural draftsperson is removed from the register. This clause also allows for the issuance of a duplicate in the event the original certificate is lost or destroyed,” Mr Swartz said.

He said Clause 21 of the Bill amends the Act but extending revenues of the Architects’ Registration Council to include annual subvention or grants from government until such time that the council is able to source its own funding.

He said as funds from registration fees will initially be inadequate to offset the recurrent expenditure of the council in short term, an annual subvention from government is needed to meet the shortfall.

Architects Registration Act was enacted by Parliament in 2008 to provide for self-regulation of the architectural profession in Botswana, in line with international trends on having a national register of professional architects with minimum requirements to practice in the profession.

The ARC is mandated with the determination of qualification requirements for each category of registration and discipline of practising architects.

He explained that while the Act came into force in 2009, it was never implemented because ARC had experienced operational challenges due to lack of funding.

Mr Swartz further said the Act was in limbo for a period of five years and that the Botswana Association of Architects, a major stakeholder has been calling for amendment to make provision for funding through subvention to Architects Registration Council. ENDS