15:07 08.08.2019

Potential corruption in architectural-construction inspectorate amounts to over UAH 3 bln a year – MP Shuliak

3 min read
Potential corruption in architectural-construction inspectorate amounts to over UAH 3 bln a year – MP Shuliak

Potential corruption in the State Architectural-Construction Inspectorate amounts to over UAH 3 billion a year, newly elected MP from the Servant of the People Party Olena Shuliak has said.

"I recently calculated the potential corruption component that dishonest people around the State Architectural-Construction Inspectorate can receive, and, unfortunately, the figure has struck me – more than UAH 3 billion per year. And this does not take into account infrastructure facilities, bridge construction, major repairs and new road construction. This is an extremely powerful figure for the construction market," Shuliak said during the Transparent Services for the Effective Construction Industry international conference held in Kyiv on Tuesday.

According to her, every second investor receives a refusal to issue a building permit, others write a "statement on the suspension of consideration of documents."

"To eradicate this, you do not need to invent a bicycle. If all the data is transparent, public and accessible for analysis, then the corruption component can be reduced. For about a year we have been working with the Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Economy Ministry, BRDO [Better Regulation Delivery Office], other reform offices, and the State Agency for E-Governance, with the TAPAS project on the unified electronic system in the construction sphere, so that existing registers interact with each other," the expert said.

Shuliak also said, referring to Advisor to the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov, that the developer's electronic cabinet will be presented in September.

The State Architectural-Construction Inspectorate needs to be reformed in a radical way, through the creation of a parallel structure that over time will replace the existing system, co-chair URE Club Legal Affairs Committee and partner of KPD Consulting law company Vladyslav Kysil said.

"The system of architectural and construction control should have two main functions. The first, the administrative and service one, is responsible for issuing building permits. The second, let's call it the city-planning police, must stop unauthorized construction and also respond to deviations from building standards that set threatening the lives of citizens," he told Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the conference.

He also said that in the field of issuing building permits it is necessary to overcome the inspectorate's monopoly by introducing qualified private companies with the right to issue permits.

In addition, the architectural-construction inspection system must be properly decentralized, the expert added.

"Now we have a half-way reform, when the authority to issue permits for the largest facilities of the CC3 category, the most commercially interesting, expensive, dangerous facilities, are entrusted to the central office of the State Architectural-Construction Inspectorate, but not to cities, or regional offices. We need to change the concept and leave only state control for socially significant facilities, unauthorized construction, and the rest should be left to the market," Kysil said.

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