IAVI Enforces Compliance
20/03/08
The Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI) has completed a full audit of its members’ compliance with the mandatory 60 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) required of members and 30 hours required of associate members in the three-year period that ended on 31st December 2006.
As a consequence, the Institute has suspended forty six members for three months from mid March because of their failure to verify compliance and pay subsequent fines imposed. In addition to the suspended members, a further eleven have paid fines for failure to comply before the deadline, averaging €2,100 each.
The decision to suspend the members was taken after a full audit of CPD compliance amongst the IAVI membership, which evidenced a 97% compliance rate.
IAVI Chief Executive Mr. Alan Cooke said that the IAVI regretted the need to suspend any member, but that the Institute felt that it was necessary to prove to the public that its membership accepts the need for high standards in the profession:
“97% of our membership passed an audit of CPD compliance with flying colours, which is something that we are very proud of. We take our commitment to high standards very seriously, and it’s good to see that our membership do as well.
Unfortunately, a small number of members, for whatever reason, have been unable to meet the standards required. We have no option but to suspend their membership of the Institute for three months, after which time their membership will cease unless they are fully compliant, including the payment of fines imposed and evidencing compliance with the required number of hours.
We do not take measures like this lightly, but we have to be able to ensure that when a member of the public sees an IAVI logo above a door, they know that IAVI members operating behind that door are not alone highly skilled, trained and trustworthy, but that they have evidenced compliance with the IAVI life long learning policy, which is in place to benefit the public.
Of course, these measures would not be necessary if we had a properly regulated auctioneering profession. We can only keep our own house in order. There remain a disturbingly high number of individuals operating in this profession who have had no formal training, are bound by no rules or code of ethics, and who are answerable to nobody. This simply has to change.
Once again, on behalf of the IAVI, I am calling on the Government to fast track the auctioneering bill, and get it into law sooner rather than later. It’s time the public was assured of across-the-board standards similar to those guaranteed by the IAVI via its 2,100 members”