NACP recommends revising bill on urban planning reform

The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), after reviewing the revised version of bill No. 5655 on the reform of urban development, assessed it as inconsistent with the anti-corruption strategy and recommends revising the bill.

"In accordance with the Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2021-2025, the priority areas for the introduction of measures to prevent corruption are, in particular, construction, land relations and infrastructure. Problems in this area are, among other things, the imperfection of existing control tools and the lack of transparency in construction processes. Based on the results of consideration of the revised version of the bill, it was found that the proposed version does not solve the identified problems, and therefore is not consistent with the anti-corruption strategy," Deputy Chairman of the NACP Andriy Vyshnevetsky said in a letter to the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada, a copy of which is available to Interfax-Ukraine.

Thus, in the comments and recommendations of the NACP, among other things, it is noted that bill No. 5655 does not provide for a mechanism for eliminating identified violations of the law established as a result of supervision, there are no sanctions for objects of supervision in case of violations and it is not indicated how these violations should be eliminated. Also, there is no provision for the procedure for the annulment of the right to build, obtained on the basis of the submitted documents that contradict the town planning legislation. Therefore, it is proposed to provide for a procedure for terminating the right to build and cancel permits if violations are detected by the supervisory authority.

Bill No. 5655 proposes to amend the law on regulation of urban development with new article 383 and establish that a construction site built or being built in violation of restrictions on land use cannot be considered an object of unauthorized construction if such restrictions are not specified in urban planning conditions and restrictions and/or not included in the State Land Cadastre.

"These circumstances practically legitimize construction in violation of restrictions on land use. Regarding the availability of information on restrictions on land use in the State Land Cadastre, it should be noted that the information entered in the SLC is incomplete, is in the process of being created and may not contain data on a particular land area," the NACP said.

At the same time, the NACP recommends that, as a basis for refusing to provide urban planning conditions and restrictions, the discrepancy between data and information in order to obtain the urban planning conditions and restrictions with the requirements of urban planning documentation should be provided, and when developing projects and conducting an examination, establish compliance with the requirements of urban planning documentation at the local level. In addition, the NACP submitted a number of other proposals.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua