Monopolization of the construction industry or increased control over violations? In Ukraine criticized the bill reforming the industry

Ukraine prepares bill for second reading № 5655 about reforming the sphere of urban planning, which was opposed in a number of organizations and even in the Ministry of Culture. We tell you what is wrong with the bill and what its adoption can lead to.

Developers will be able to "control" themselves

The explanatory note to the bill says that now the performance of licensing and registration functions in construction, the implementation of state architectural and construction control and supervision of compliance with the requirements of legislation in the field of urban planning, building codes, mandatory standards are combined in one central executive body. And experts and law enforcement officers consider such licensing activity main source of corruption in the construction industry.

It is noted that world experience shows that the creation of a competitive and transparent market environment, reasonable regulation and automation of the provision of services helps to fight this type of corruption. Therefore, the bill provides introduction of honest control over developers, even control over unauthorized construction will be carried out by such structures.

And here there is one important point, for which indicates Deputy Head of the Architectural Chamber of Ukraine Anna Kiriy: developers themselves can create such companies to give the appearance of control. Only those who have money will be able to create a controlling organization, since the organization must have insurance contract for 3-5 million euros. That is, large developers can create them for themselves, and the rest can be squeezed out of the market by searching for violations.

Restriction of the rights of other players

Local government during development, it can only affect the height of buildings, the density of buildings and their distance from the streets. At the same time, local governments will be able to create their own urban planning control bodies, but the developer is more likely to choose structures that are beneficial to him. If such a body finds an illegal construction site, it can only write a complaint to the town planning control, which with a high probability may be affiliated with the developer.

In this case, community will only be able to take part in hearings on the already developed urban planning documentation, and initiate inspections, write complaints, etc. they won't be able to.

The bill also provides for the possibility for the developer to change the developer of the project and transfer copyright to the project, after which, with the help of another architect, make changes to a previously approved project. And this eliminates the essence of architectural supervision of the project, which should protect against low-quality construction.

Strengthening of the Minrgegion and monopolization

The Ministry of Regional Development will take over part of the control functions, including issuing fines and holding market participants accountable. Very large fines are provided for violations - from 30 living wages (now it is 80,52 thousand hryvnias).

Developers will be able to file complaints against architects, experts, etc., and filing a complaint against the developer in the bill is not provided.

Also, the Ministry of Regional Development will decide who will be given access to the market and who will not, will register expert organizations, authorized persons of urban planning control, certify architects and engineers. All this is intended to through an electronic system owned by the Ministry of Regional Development.

In this regard, experts believe that if the bill is adopted, corruption in the industry can be increased, the ministry will become a monopoly in it, and the minister will become one of the most influential people in the country.

In the "Servant of the People" they say that everything is fine

People's Deputy from the "Servant of the People" and the initiator of the already scandalous bill Elena Shulyak считаетthat after its adoption, the obligation of the executive bodies of local councils will be the implementation of constant and continuous monitoring of developments. So, according to her, the local authorities will be obliged to:

• engage in the detection of unauthorized construction;
• monitor objects with a high level of risk, the list of which will be formed based on the results of automatic software analysis in the electronic construction system. The system will randomly generate checklists to minimize random checks;
• monitor facilities where violations can be reported by individuals or legal entities.

The executive bodies of local councils will be required to respond to all violations, and the most brutal response to them is the demolition of the facility. According to Shulyak, in certain cases, the local government will be able to decide on the demolition itself.

Mayors and Anti-Corruptionists Against

The Association of Cities of Ukraine performed strongly against adoption of this bill. They explained their position as follows:

• the draft law creates conditions for monopoly centralized admission of builders to the market, and those who enter will be allowed to create a private body for monitoring urban development activities without the influence of the state or local government;
• control and supervision of local self-government are destroyed by replacing them with monitoring, which includes only watching for unauthorized construction;
• a construction amnesty is introduced and reimbursement of construction costs to unauthorized developers from the local budget;
• the rights of land owners are violated, because there will be no responsibility for unauthorized construction;
• the ability of the public to control the legality of development and influence illegal construction is eliminated;
• the achievements of the decentralization reform are destroyed, the entire industry is centralized and freed from real control.

Mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klichko in general saidthat the draft law completely levels the control of cities over construction and creates conditions for monopoly centralized admission of developers to the market, which will lead to the legalization of unauthorized developments.

In the Ministry of Culture count them.that the bill in its current form can lead to the destruction of the cultural heritage of Ukraine, because it actually eliminates the powers of the guarding authorities.

And in the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption notedthat the bill does not solve the problems of control and transparency of these processes, and therefore is not consistent with the anti-corruption strategy.

It should be noted that, according to unofficial data, the bill, despite criticism, has a chance to gain the required number of votes.

We also wrote about what awaits the clients of Alfa-Bank, which in fact no longer exists, and told on a bill that could make it easier to move money offshore.

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