Bureau automates land documentation

 Determined to ease the challenge associated with land processing, the Lagos State Lands' Bureau has introduced a new procedure. The Integrated Land Administration and Automation System is meant to shorten procedure for land allocation and administration. The new process will allow intending clients of the Bureau to submit applications on-line. This system will take about 18 months to begin after full installation of equipment that will drive the process. The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Lands' Bureau, Governor's Office, Mr. Bode Agoro, explained that automation of the system became necessary because of delays caused by manual operation. ''No matter how you structure your administration using manual processes, you cannot have maximum productivity,'' Agoro said. He explained part of the benefit to include allowing the bureau to create a secondary market whereby titles issued by the lands bureau can be guaranteed, that is, the bureau would partner with insurance companies to guarantee the title and trade with it as if trading in shares. A quality control unit to block all leakages has also been set up; this will help to improve service delivery especially in the area of double allocation. On the issue of encroachment on land due to the activities of land grabbers, government, he explained, has responded by enacting a law against the practice and a taskforce has been set up to carry out its implementation. The Act prescribes a jail term for violators of the law. He, therefore, advised interested land buyers to always request for a survey plan before buying any property and come to the office of the Surveyor-General to confirm its authenticity. Agoro admitted that the recession affecting the bureau, stating that since the recession the volume of application has dropped compared to when the country was not in recession, and what the bureau is doing now is to speed up the processes and make it faster so as to attract more customers. The bureau, he further explained, has been carrying out various programmes discreetly, results of which he claimed "speaks for the bureau." ''We are doing a lot of work in the background, we are putting a lot of changes and those changes have been yielding positive results. They have been able to weed out a lot of unscrupulous practices and officers that are not able to meet up with the demands have been shown the way out and the remaining ones have been engaged in training and orientation," he said, adding that he is leading by example. Agoro said the orientation of the staff has changed. He charged all staff of the bureau to treat every client politely. For this purpose, he explained that the office of Public Relations & Complain was established.  



Posted via Festechvibes panels.