In the Verkhovna Rada are working on a government bill to amend the conditions of construction in Ukraine (No. 5587). This week document considered by the parliamentary Committee on construction, urban development, housing and communal services.
The Committee on the basis of discussions recommends to the Parliament that the document be included in the agenda of the sixth session and by results of consideration in the first reading adopted as a basis with Committee amendments. Hotfix removed from the document regulations that already exist in the legislation of Ukraine.
The author of the bill is the Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman, and the explanatory note stated that the document aims to regulate the requirements to conduct construction activities in Ukraine. The changes, according to the project, will be made in the various laws of Ukraine, including architectural and urban development activities.
Experts PolitEyes helped “Today” to deal with the fact that it will change if the law is passed. In General, experts praised the bill and noted that its adoption will help Ukraine to rise in the ranking of Doing Buisiness, which is one of the current priorities of the authorities. So Minister of justice Pavel Petrenko estimates that the growth of just one point in the ranking of Doing Business will give Ukraine $ 630 million investment.
Key innovations and facts:
- Qualification and admission to the construction market can only get the architects (and engineers, engineers of technical supervision, experts in the validation of design solutions and drawings, etc.) with higher specialized education.
- Canceled the need to obtain technical conditions from the State service of Ukraine for emergency situations.
- The Cabinet of Ministers is empowered to establish a list of facilities, construction of which will not require licensing mechanisms and taking into operation.
- Introduces a uniform concept of “the customer”, whose rights will be provided only to the person having registered rights to the land plot under construction.
Analysts also highlighted the pros and cons of the document.
Positive features of the bill:
- Mandatory skills will provide greater quality, reliability and safety of constructed facilities.
- The Ukrainian legislation is consistent with international standards of regulation of construction activities.
- Simplifies the procedures for the implementation of construction activities and closes the path for the “individual agreements” (corruption).
- Will raise the position of Ukraine in the Doing Business rating for the component “Obtaining construction permits”.
- The abolition of the requirement to ensure new homes phone and radio communications
- Allows to regulate construction in a combat zone.
“The requirement for higher education in individuals who have developed project documentation and provided technical supervision of construction, provides building owners an additional guarantee of their security,” – said a leading lawyer of the Office of effective regulation BRDO Denis Malyuska.
The negative features of the bill:
- The need to resolve the question of determining the level of higher education for performers and architectural works. The text of the bill is unclear, will be admitted to the certification examinations.
- The absence of a settlement of the question of the use of previously obtained certificates to persons who do not have higher education. For example, you need to set the rule for cancellation of certificates to persons having higher professional education.
- The absence of clear restrictive list of construction operations not requiring permits for their execution, creates risks of corruption.
- The lack of statistical reporting requirements on the acceptance into operation of completed construction objects.
- Requires improvement monitoring samoreguliruemaja organizations.
Andrew Erashov
co-chair of the Committee on development of entrepreneurship in the SOUP
The bill ensures that construction and services will be carried out only by qualified personnel. This is a positive change for people (potential owners or tenants) because they can be assured that the construction work was carried out by persons with the appropriate level of professional education.
The bill also sets out clear criteria for compulsory expertise of construction projects. The definition of “rules of the game” has a positive effect on the work of developers.
The bill will allow Ukraine to rise by 19 positions in the Doing Business rating in terms of “Obtaining construction permits” (without taking into account the progress of other countries in the rating).
However, I consider it necessary to include in the law a requirement of statistical reporting on the acceptance into operation of completed construction objects. In addition, the law should define a clear list of construction operations not requiring permits for their implementation. In General, I recommend the Verkhovna Rada adopt the bill as a basis.
Lubomir Cherny
senior expert of the USAID project “Leadership in the economic management of the city”
The bill should eliminate some administrative barriers in the implementation of construction activities, which is a positive goal. However, the document provides a segmental, not always justified and sometimes poorly written intervention in the regulation of construction activities.
The main negative innovations is corruption risks associated with the implementation of certain provisions of the bill.
It is, in particular, the provision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine the right to approve the list of construction works that do not require permits for putting into operation. As such a list is not clearly defined and has no restrictions in the current legislation nor the proposed draft law, this right may create the way for corruption.
In addition, significant improvements require changes in the definition of “customer”.
Important is the elimination of rules that create a risk of corruption.
Many of the standards and regulations that are currently used in the construction industry in Ukraine, are obsolete and do not meet the new economic and technological realities.
Industry, first of all, requires revision of the national building regulations, unification of requirements to the construction and engineering documents, cancel certain types of permits and approvals, and the like.
