By Dixon Bwalya –

Provision of architectural services, as is the case for most professional services, is controlled under statute in this case under CAP 442 of the Laws of Zambia.
Only qualified registered architects licensed to practice the trade are allowed by law to offer architectural services, there are some qualified architects who are registered with the Zambia Institute of Architects but are not licensed to practice the trade but may be employed as architects.
Licensed architectural firms are supposed to be stand alone legal personalities who can sue or be sued in the course of their architectural practice if anything goes wrong such as building failure.
There is an office block under construction in Kapiri Mposhi almost opposite Chimsoro Milling plant on the Kapiri/Kabwe Road with a mounted building site sign board where the client, the architect and the structural engineer are all indicated as the same corporate organization.
A check with the Zambia Institute of Architects revealed that this corporate body is not registered to practice or offer architectural services.
Yes it is possible for this corporate body to have among its members of staff an architect or indeed a structural engineer employed to advise on architectural or other related matters, just as is the case where organizations employ lawyers to advise on legal matters, but this does not mean the affected corporate body qualifies to offer architectural services in its name.
This state of things has taken a new twist in our local authorities.
Under CAP 480 Local Authorities are given a lot of functions to perform derived from the Republican Constitution even captured again in the Draft Constitution of Zambia under Annex (Article176 (2)) item C.
In order to execute these functions PART VIII of CAP 480 Article 81 gives Councils power to make by-laws for the good rule and government of the affected areas.
However the same Act under Article 85 states thus: “Nothing in this Act contained shall be construed as empowering a council to make any by-law which is in conflict with or derogates from the provisions of any other written law; and to the extent that any by-law conflicts with or derogates from the provisions of any other law. It shall be void”
The major role local authorities are supposed to play in as far as provision of architectural services has to do with making and enforcing building regulations to protect the general public.
These building regulations will include safety, health and fire fighting considerations and it is in this regard that CAP 480 has outlined procedures to be followed whenever one intends to erect a building so that local authorities can scrutinize applications to ensure that the relevant building regulations have been adhered to and this is enshrined in Article 6(1) of PART II of CAP 480 which states:
“No person shall conduct or undertake any building operations, drainage works or installation works unless he has obtained in respect of such operations or works a building permit from the council of the area in which the building operations, drainage works or installation works are to be carried out.”
The Act goes on to prescribe what drawings are to be submitted to the council, the scale to which these drawings are to be drawn to as well as what the drawings should contain from building plans, block plans and site plans.
Under Article 14 of PART II the Act states; “All building operations, drainage works and installation works to which these Regulations apply shall be supervised by a qualified architect or any other person approved as competent by a council, and it shall be the duty of such architect or other person aforesaid to ensure that the operations and works are carried out in accordance with the provisions of these Regulations”
In other words the major duty of councils in the process of offering architectural services is that of policing building activities taking place in our towns and cities on behalf of the general public and ensure that the built environment is a safe place to live in.
The same Act goes on to give circumstances under which applications to build may not be approved.
Recent activities taking place in a number of local authorities may give indications that these local authorities are contravening such other laws as the Competitions and Consumer Protection Commission Act as well as the Zambia Institute of Architects Act and which activities raise issues of conflict of interest in that instead of independently monitoring works executed by others; councils are monitoring works executed by themselves.
This state of things in the construction industry as affects the local authorities has come about where councils offer and give out plots to residents and compel the unsuspecting recipients to purchase building plans from the same councils under the promise that applications to develop submitted to the councils will be processed quickly, and this may explain why applications to erect buildings are currently taking unnecessarily long to be approved and yet Article 16 of the same Act states:
“16 (1) The council shall, within forty five days from the deposit of the relevant plans, give notice to the person by whom or on whose behalf they were deposited whether or not they are passed.
16 (2) A notice of rejection shall specify the defects on account of which the plans have been rejected”
More importantly to note by the general public who may be subjected to these manipulations by some unscrupulous council employees are the provisions contained in Article 16 (3) which state; “In the event of failure on the part of a council to send a notice within the stipulated time as required under sub-regulation (1), the person who submitted the plans or the person on whose behalf the plans were submitted may proceed with the building operations but in strict conformity with the plans submitted and in accordance with these Regulations”
As has been stated in the case of the Kapiri Mposhi proposed office block councils have authority to regulate and monitor what gets constructed in their affected catchment areas but they are not licensed to offer or provide architectural services and are not registered, as required by law, with the Zambia Institute of Architects in other words councils conducting themselves in this manner are doing so illegally.
It may also be possible that money raised through sale of building plans may end up outside council coffers.
Competitions and Consumer Protection Commission has been known before to frown upon anyone advocating a monopolistic approach in doing business one would only hope this attitude is not selective in approach.
The general public should be left free to construct any building of their choice on their particular plots so long as such operations are in accordance with the applicable building regulations and not be coerced into buying illegal council plans with no one ready to accept liability in case of failure.
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