Keshav Padaruth named youngest RICS fellow in Africa

Mauritian Keshav Padaruth is the youngest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Fellow in Africa.

Firmly established as a progressive business hub with a thriving economy on the global map, Mauritius is fast becoming a breeding ground for professionals. Despite the fact that this small island in the Indian Ocean has a population of 1.3-million inhabitants, it is home to approximately 120 chartered surveyors, of which more than 65% are from the field of quantity surveying.

Among these surveyors is Keshav Padaruth (31), who is currently VP of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and also the registrar of the Professional Quantity Surveyors’ Council (PQSC) of Mauritius - he has been admitted as the youngest RICS fellow in Africa and one of the youngest worldwide.

Youngest practicing chartered QS

Following his high school education at the Royal College of Curepipe, Padaruth completed his BSc in quantity surveying at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. He holds an MSc in project management and a diploma in employment law.

At the end of 2009, Padaruth joined the Ministry of Public Infrastructure as an assistant QS. In May 2012, at the age of 26, he was accepted as a member of the RICS – becoming the youngest chartered QS practicing in Mauritius. His achievements continued in February 2013 when he became the youngest senior QS at the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.

Responsibilities and government projects

In September 2013, following the proclamation of the Professional Quantity Surveyors’ Council (PQSC) Act in Mauritius, Padaruth became the first registrar of the PQSC, shouldering responsibilities for the setting up of the council itself. He acts as both secretary and treasurer for the council.

The young Mauritian QS is a registered trainer with the Mauritius Qualification Authority (MQA) and a part-time lecturer. In addition, he is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb).

Padaruth has worked on several government projects since 2010 and has acted as project quantity surveyor for the new government quantity surveying office whose procurement proceeding was the maiden electronic public invitation for bids for construction works issued on the government e-Procurement System (e-PS) at the end of 2015. The e-PS is a project driven by the Procurement Policy Office (PPO) of Mauritius.

Padaruth currently works for the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and is the first chartered QS working for the government of Mauritius. Among the few chartered surveyors on the island who have been admitted as fellows of the RICS, he is also still acting registrar of the PQSC and acting vice president of RICS Mauritius.