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"Liberian
Real Estate Auditor:" Solution to Liberia's land
issues
Wednesday,
January 25, 2006
By Fred A. Raynes, Sr
As
Liberia gradually moves towards peace and stability,
the ownership of land will undoubtedly become a major
issue. I
have been engaged in discussions with many Liberians
regarding the land fiasco in Liberia. I
have heard
frustrated landowners residing in my community saying
that the next civil war in Liberia (that is, if we
don’t take the necessary steps to resolve some of
the critical issues) will
be fought over the ownership of land.
It goes without saying that
land tenure issues (such as the illegal sale and
resale of land, ownership of a certain parcel of land
by more than one individual, etc.)
needs immediate attention.
Let us face the facts!
With the absence
of many landowners from Liberia
during the past fourteen or more years, there’s
bound to be fraudulent real estate activities (deals)
going on.
For example, there
are unscrupulous individuals involved in the sale and
resale of land to multiple
individuals.
This is a fact that we cannot deny.
And so, when Mr. Robert L Kilby, a Liberian
Certified Public Accountant
(CPA) and Information
Technology auditor, invited
me and others to his home in Snellville, Georgia, for
a business meeting during the recent holiday season, I
was very thrilled to find out that he too had been
thinking about the same thing, but more importantly,
he had found the appropriate solution to the problem
– technology, something that Liberia desperately
needs if it must catch up with the rest of the world.
The
LandTECH Project
During this meeting, Mr. Kilby, presented
us with a project entitled “The
Liberian Real Estate Auditor” which is an
internet-based computerized system for public records
keeping and display.
Powered by LandTECH, a dynamic software
platform, this computerized
auditing
system consists of four-components with
functionality that transcends three different
ministries of government (Justice, Lands and Mines,
and State).
Because
the product is presently pending
approval from the United States patent office, I’m
not at liberty at this particular time to divulge its
real potential in resolving land issues in Liberia in
the near future.
But you can trust me on this one; it’s ideal
for Liberia and could surely help in introducing
several new industries in our country
that could provide much needed jobs to our people.
If you want to contact Robert personally
for specific information on the project, you may do so
at rkilby@isci.com. I’m
sure that
he’d be more than willing to share a little
more information with
you than I can.
According to what he disclosed in the meeting,
the Liberian Real
Estate
Auditor
system will prevent fraud
as well as provide
valuable information to the investing public by
enabling the Land
and Mines Ministry
to update the database with exiting deeds information
and on going auditing of real estate in the entire
country. And
I mean on a continuing basis.
Facilitating
Real Estate (Property) Sales
Additionally, The Liberian Real Estate
Auditor Platform will facilitate real estate sales,
title transfer, property tax tracking, real estate
litigation, and title search etc.
Several new industries will obviously emerge
when the product is fully implemented. Here are a few:
Real Estate Brokerage Firms and/or Agencies,
Title Insurance and Real Estate Investment, among
others.
That’s
why I would strongly urge the new Johnson-Sirleaf
administration to take advantage of this system in
order to implement controls, transparency, and
accountability in the Real Estate industry in Liberia.
With
or without the Liberian government’s approval,
though, the product will
certainly attract the attention of other countries.
I saw the
potential the project showed and immediately
considered acquiring a stake in it as a venture
capitalist. Without
a doubt, I am convinced that my investment will yield
a significant return when this project finally takes
off.
I am grateful to Mr. Kilby for the invitation
and congratulate him for embarking on this
historical and monumental project. First of all,
the product has universal
application – that’s why I like it the best!
Benefit to the Liberian government
“Hands down”, this
product
will definitely bring the
much needed credibility
and oversight to the real estate industry
in
Liberia. In
addition, this
Internet-based
technology is destined
to put Liberia’s real estate industry
on par with
the world’s most advanced democracies
by bridging the technology divide.
Furthermore, the
real estate auditing system will
provide Liberia with technological
superiority over other African and developing
countries when it comes to land issues.
As intended, the Liberian Real Estate Auditor
will be implemented and operated at no cost to the
newly inaugurated Liberian government.
.
Independent Software Certification (ISCI), LLP,
of which Mr. Kilby is a managing partner, will pay all
operating costs for the project.
Most
significantly, the
modular nature of the
system will enable the tracking
and reporting of
real estate activities throughout the fifteen counties
in Liberia.
Attracting
Investors
The Liberian Real
Estate Auditor
system will establish accountability and transparency
in the real estate market, which
will in turn attract real
estate developers in all
sectors of the country.
In
his book, “The Mystery
of Capital,
Why Capitalism
Triumphs in
the West and Fails
Everywhere Else”,
one Mr. Harnando Desoto, an internationally renowned
Peruvian economist, said that the United States of
America economic prosperities were hindered for the
first 100 years after independence
due to land tenure issues.
He
goes on to say that “as soon as the real
estate activities such as the recording of deeds and
litigation information about its real estates
activities came in line with the judicial system of
the [country], the United
States saw the greatest
economic prosperity than
any other time in
[the] history of the world”.
Similarly, Liberia has
the opportunity now to finally correct our land tenure
issues and determine its own
destiny going forward.
Building
Strong Partnership
In conclusion, The Liberian Real
Estate Auditor
system as proposed by Mr. Kilby, will not only resolve
a potential land crisis in Liberia in the not too
distant future, it will also help to produce much
needed jobs for unemployed Liberians.
The solution to the country’s land issues
would be found in transactions
to final disposition involving land and/or property
sale. ISCI,
LLP, therefore, is not just a
software manufacturing company that’s highly capable
of partnering with the newly-elected Liberian
government, it’s also a reputable Certified Public
Accounting firm engaged
in Information Technology auditing of public and
private companies as well as governmental agencies in
the United States.
This is just the kind of partnership that the
Johnson Sirleaf administration needs (especially with
credible and highly professional Liberian firms), in
order to speedily move the country forward.
Don’t you agree?
You bet!
raynesf@bellsouth.net
Atlanta,
Georgia
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