Transcript Governance in Land Administration Kyrgyz Republic February, 200 Asyl Undeland [email protected]      Kyrgyz Republic is a small landlocked mountainous country located in north east Central Asia bordering.

Governance in Land
Administration
Kyrgyz Republic
February, 200
Asyl Undeland
[email protected]
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Kyrgyz Republic is a small landlocked mountainous country located
in north east Central Asia bordering Kazakhstan, China, Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan. One of the Former SU countries, independent since
1991.
Territory is about 198,500 square kilometers, 90% under the
mountain ranges of Tian Shan and Pamir Alai, 7% of arable land
Population 5.3 million with majority ethnic Kyrgyz
75% Muslim, 20% Russian Orthodox
Poor country with GDP per capita about US$542 (2006)
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1. Land Policy Leading to Tenure
Security
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Kyrgyz political leadership was leader among post-Soviet
countries in setting a course for a land market based on
private ownership
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Break-up of collective farms (from 500 to 300,000)
Immediate, cost-free transfer of property rights in settled
areas
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Private ownership introduced in 1998 Constitutional
Amendment and new Land Code in 1999 (land distributed
to 90% of rural population)
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Launched a new property registry system and conducted
systematic registration of real property rights in 1999-2007
with donor support, especially the World Bank
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2. Property Rights Have Legal Recognition
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Constitutional recognition of private, municipal,
and state property
Civil Code explicitly recognizes that ownership
consists of a bundle of three rights:
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Possession
Use
Disposition
Registration system guarantees protection of
these rights
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Including use rights (e.g. easements, leases), but these
are commonly not entered into the system
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3. Effective Service Delivery by Land
Institutions
Range of services:
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Registration and guarantees of property rights
(Gosregister)
Regulation of use rights, including urban
zoning, regulation of use of agricultural land
Regulation of public land (addressed in
Principle 5)
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Registration Services
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Widely used for dispositions, but
infrequently used for registration of use
rights and passive approach to right of
possession
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Registration often occurs when a sale is
imminent or when property is sued as a
collateral
Most current ownership was captured in
systematic registration
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Regulation of Use Rights
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Urban land planning
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Legislation in place to transition from Soviet-era restrictive
‘targeted use’ to lists of permitted types of use/development in
given zones
In practice, still requires case-by-case interaction and approval
by local architecture departments, with the latter exercising
significant discretion
Overlapping authority between local governments and State
Gosregister and architecture departments makes process
complicated
Rural land use
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Indicative plans for growing, but in practice limited control
Limited market information for private farmers
Restrictions on publicly owned land (pastures, some reserve
arable land, forests)
Some restrictions on ownership of agricultural land (i.e.
foreign citizens, legal entities)
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4. Access to Information
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Gosregister has open records
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Initial resistance in legislation, but confirmed
open access to property records since 2004
(According to public opinion survey, roughly half
the surveyed clients are not aware of Gosregister’s
provision of information about all real estate and a
third was unaware of a formal system of payment
for faster processing).
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New general zoning plans, if they exist,
are public, but detailed plans in
architecture departments are not
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5. Transparent Public Land Management
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State-owned agricultural land
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Pastures
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Agricultural Land Reserve Fund
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85% of all agricultural land
25% of arable land, set aside for multiple uses including expansion
of settlements, special seed and other farms, as a reserve for
those who did not get title in initial privatization
Forests Fund
State-owned urban land
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Parcels attached to publicly owned buildings (schools, etc.)
Land that is neither state nor privately owned is considered
municipal property owned by local governments
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Issues with Public Land Governance
Incomplete, inaccurate inventories of all
categories of public land: LRF, pastures,
municipal land
 Despite legal requirements for competition
and transparency, frequent nontransparent, corrupt allocation practices
 Weak capacity in government institutions
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Common property issues are ignored (pastures)
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6. Transparent Real Property Valuation
and Taxation
Land tax is based on normative values for
categories of agricultural and urban land
 Rates are set by Parliament annually, with
local variation and are very low
 Insignificant revenues from the tax
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7. Enforcement of Rights and Dispute
Resolution
State judicial and law enforcement
systems are widely seen as corrupt and
time-consuming
 Moderately greater trust in local
governments, but still seen as ineffective.
 Preference for alternative resolution of
disputes in local communities through
elders and other informal mechanisms
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Key Problem Areas
Formal governance institutions,
particularly local governments, urban land
planning entities, courts, and law
enforcement are viewed as corrupt, poor
managers of public land, and inefficient
providers of services
 Clarification of functions among
government entities for public
management of land
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Improving Service Delivery in State registration
Agency of Right to Immovable property
(Gosregister)
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Gosregister generally is rated better, has clearer
procedures
Gosregister has put relatively more emphasis to
customer satisfaction and continues to improve
In 2007 Gosregister with the support from the World
Bank introduced a new system of service quality
assessment through an internally organized customer
survey and evaluation mechanism
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Governance in Land Administration
Kyrgyz Republic
Gosregister Service Delivery Improvement
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10 Gosregister monitoring specialists trained
on data entry, processing and analysis and
equipped with manual
Poll developed and conducting with experts
Data entry and analysis
Presentation of results to Gosregister
management
Presentation of results to the public
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Governance in Land Administration
Kyrgyz Republic
SURVEY SAMPLE - Public Opinion Survey
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A total of 1,106 people were interviewed in
the course of the survey:
747 were clients/non-clients (68% of the
sample), of which 549 were clients and 198
non-clients;
135 (12% of sample) were representatives of
various professional organizations providing
services connected to the activities of
Gosregister;
223 staff of Gosregister (20% of the sample).
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Governance in Land Administration
Kyrgyz Republic
GENERAL EVALUATION OF SERVICES
Public Opinion Survey
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Most partner organizations think the registration
system positively influences the investment
climate, improves legal environment for business
development and leads to decrease of corruption
in country.
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Gosregister rated as having played a crucial
positive role in development of land and real
estate markets, securing ownership rights,
promoting growth of small and medium
entrepreneurship accessing credit resources.
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Kyrgyz Republic
GENERAL EVALUATION OF SERVICES
Public Opinion Survey
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Gosregister’s services are generally evaluated as
average, but its overall role is rated as valuable.
This is largely to be expected since it is unlikely that
clients will give high grades for excellence in tasks
that are mostly routine in nature.
Human resources are seen to be by far the most
important factor influencing quality of services.
Over half the respondents noted competency and
ethics (with another 13% noting human resources
related issues of wages and staffing numbers) while
other factors such as physical plant and the legal
framework were seen as far less important
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Conclusions for Service Provision Indicators
(SPI)
Public Opinion Survey
1.
Negligible use of Gosregister for lease rights (only
1.3% of client cases involved registration of a
lease) suggests that need for guarantees of
lessees' rights is not strong. It also is likely that
tax avoidance influences this decision.
2.
Non-use of Gosregister service by non clients
points to issues regarding the convenience of
service to clients. A high proportion of non-clients
cited fear of bureaucracy and complexity and lack
of time and means as reasons for non-usage.
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Conclusions for Service Provision Indicators
(SPI)
Public Opinion Survey
3.
Roughly half the surveyed clients are not
aware of Gosregister’s provision of
information about all real estate and a
third was unaware of a formal system of
payment for faster processing.
4.
Media and local governments play a large
role in the public’s understanding of
Gosregister. Gosregister should use these
channels as much as resources permit.
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Conclusions for Service Provision Indicators
(SPI)
Public Opinion Survey
5.
Gosregister can do more to provide information directly,
including maintain phone lines and a better website.
6.
The level of physical access is quite good, with nearly
90% of clients having to spend under an hour to travel to
their LRO.
7.
LROs should consider means to encourage more of a ‘one
stop shop’ for all that is required in registration. Even if
other organizations are performing the service, organizing
banking services in close proximity to LROs should be
possible.
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Conclusions for Service Provision Indicators
(SPI)
Public Opinion Survey
8.
Only 1/3 of clients had difficulty with the
registration process, and of these only about 40%
had problems with Gosregister’s procedures per se
(other problems related to right-establishing
documents or other agencies).
9.
Fees are considered mostly affordable and
reasonable. 11% of clients and organizations
thought that they were not affordable, with an
additional 14% thinking that they were too high in
conjunction with other organizations’ fees. Only
25% thought that the amount of fees was not
justified by the services provided.
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Kyrgyz Republic
Conclusions for Professional Competency Indicators
Public Opinion Survey
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A high proportion of representatives of associated
organizations who are competent clients (58%) and
Gosregister staff (77%) state that staff sometimes
make mistakes with data entry.
The most prevalent mistake is incorrect entry of
names and addresses, which is not a question of
professional skills, but attentiveness to detail.
Gosregister staff generally feel skills are average and
that additional training is needed.
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Kyrgyz Republic
Conclusions for Professional Competency Indicators
Public Opinion Survey
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Measures are needed to increase accountability for
Gosregister staff for their mistakes. The Guarantee
Fund has not been fully operating. Staff feel that they
are measured in terms of timeliness rather than quality
of data entry.
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There is widespread satisfaction (77% of clients) with
the speed of services.
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Only about 5% of clients citing delays due to attempts
to extract informal payments, though some
professional associated organizations noted that they
regularly provided such payments.
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Kyrgyz Republic
Client Relations Indicators
Public Opinion Survey
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More than 80% of clients and organization found that
Gosregister staff behaved appropriately in carrying out
their duties.
Most clients provide average ratings for convenience of
how LROs are organized.
Convenience appears to depend on the individual effort
of management, not standards. Gosregister should consider
mandating and monitoring adherence to basic quality standards,
such as heating premises, size of print for information stands,
and organizing other services nearby.
Gosregister is generally thought to be fair in its dealing
with clients (2/3 of clients).
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Kyrgyz Republic
Client Relations Indicators
Public Opinion Survey
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Assessments of corruption are largely inconclusive,
though there is some corruption in the system. Only
about 1/3 of clients and organizations thought that there
was corruption, and only about half of these directly
encountered it.
When corruption occurs, it is to ‘facilitate’
procedures rather than change decisions. Most cited
instances of corruption were to speed up Gosregister’s work
and get help with other entities, while only 8% involved an
effort to change the substance of what Gosregister was
doing (i.e. alter areas, allow improper right-establishing
documents).
Clients have little information on formal recourse to
appeal adverse decisions made by Gosregister.
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Kyrgyz Republic
RECOMMENDATIONS OF CLIENTS
Public Opinion Survey
 Increase transparency of Gosregister
work
 Increase responsibilities of Gosregister
staff for their work
 Increase accountability of services
 Improve legal framework
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Governance in Land Administration
Kyrgyz Republic
Gosregister’s follow up
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Conduct awareness campaign on importance of registration of
rights to land and property
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Improve dissemination of information on Gosregister’s services
through notaries, banks, village governments
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Improve registration facilities for clients – better information
materials, convenient places
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Facilitate introduction of automated registration system and
unified information system for accuracy and speed of services and
better access to information
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Develop and implement PR strategy of Gosregister
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