High-rise Building Inspector Required

Azerbaijan does not control any process of issuing permits for the construction and operation of apartment buildings, nor the course of their construction, the expert for the public association Transparency Azerbaijan Hafiz Hasanov said at a meeting of the "round table" on the achievements and challenges in the registration of houses. As a counter for it, he offers to establish a special commission under the executive branch, which would control the process.

"The creation of a commission, which operates on the principle of "single window," would ensure transparency in this area, and the commission could include employees of various state and public structures," Hasanov said.

According to him, it is necessary to solve the problem of defrauded investors that fork out for the purchase of apartments, as well as the problem of sales of one apartment to several persons. "It is necessary to introduce registration of contracts for each specific apartment in the electronic public register, as well as apartments themselves to the citizen to become familiar with their options without leaving their place," he said, adding that about a third of houses are built without being registered in the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

"In the case of the creation of the commission, it will be able to control the entire process from construction to commissioning, which will help to solve this problem. At the same time all the houses that have not passed state acceptance should be given amnesty," said the speaker.

His opponent, the deputy head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Agency for Safety Control in Construction Elkhan Asadov noted that amnesty for unregistered houses is not possible, because "the Ministry must ensure that the registered houses are safe for the population," he said. --17D-