Individual building is under the pressure of corruption

In Azerbaijan, the construction of individual housing is accompanied by a high degree of corruption.  Not any house can be built without bribing the executive decision-making bodies on the authorization or consent for the construction. This is the conclusion the investigation Turan news agency.

According to the Urban Planning and Construction Code of Azerbaijan Republic there is permission and notification (no permit required) consent form executive power for the construction of individual housing.

All that goes beyond notification of production,  is s under the rules  of permitted production, and requires coordination of a number of government agencies.

Notifying production has been applied since 2012,  as if to reduce the level of bureaucracy and corruption, but as the practice shows, it has become a major source of corruption in the construction, as most people build econom-class houses.

Turan news agency wrote about the problem of the so-called simplified version of the individual building - the notification of production, and examples of the experience of the area were shows, but subsequent research has shown that a similar situation is observed in all regions. Moreover, since June this year, the chief executive of Baku Hajibala Abutalibov concentrated all licensing and notification system in his hands. He  sent a letter to all  heads of executive power of   all districts of Baku in which he demanded the mandatory approval of all projects without exception, with the Department of Architecture and Construction (DAC) of the Executive Power of Baku. Attempts to get a copy of the letter   were futile. Mr. Abutalibov refused to make it public.  Even the ombudswoman Elmira Suleymanova could not influence him despite a great public interest in this document.

According to various sources,  for  consent , in addition to a  permission,    should be given a bribe of 3,000 manat for each floor of the house; however the size of bribes ranging from even lower and higher amounts.

The evidence of the use of town planning legislation for their own purposes by various so-called relevant bodies are the pictures taken from  www.google.com/maps. They show numerous  facts of violations of the law with the participation of the executive power. There is a violation of Article 69.4 of the intermediate distance (see. Below “Instructions for developers”) Urban Development Code and paragraph 4.13 "Detailed rules for zoning, building types and scale" of the Cabinet of Ministers on inadmissibility of exceeding the area of one floor by 20% of the land area.

These actions led to a massive violation of the  environment, destruction of infrastructure, human life, health standards.

This situation calls for drastic revision of the situation of individual housing construction. It is a fact that the existing laws and regulations   are not bad. However, the corrupt system devalues them.  The way out of the situation is in a trinity:

- toughening responsibility  of officials and developers for illegal construction,

- Increase transparency with the involvement of non-governmental organizations, communities, the publication of information on the adoption of the documents for construction and making them on the websites of executive authorities,

maximal simplification of the system approach as a planning and construction projects.

Correspondence

While the study of the problem on the basis of the Freedom of Information Act we had to correspond with the Cabinet of Ministers, the chief executive of Baku and the Office of Urban Development and Architecture  of the Executive power of the capital, the executive power of the   district of  Pirallahi, the State Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture, ask for support from the President of the country, even in the open form, ask for support from the Ombudswoman Elmira Suleymanova to obtain answers to questions.

The Cabinet did not reply to any email, sending   one of the letters  to the district of Pirallahi,  and then  sent a response to the agency. The executive power of the region responded evasively, not substantive. The Chief Executive of Baku and the  DAC did not  reply to any written request. Response from the President  did not come. The Ombudswoman promised in her two letters to help and control, but to no avail. The only body that responded to two letters essentially  was the State Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture,  which I thank.

Note to developers

Article 80. The notification  production of the Town Planning and Construction Code of the  republic of Azerbaijan reads:

80.1. During the construction of residential buildings, which will have a height - no more than 12 meters, long spans - no more than six meters is applied the Notification production, and for their construction  is required only architectural and planning section of the project structure.

80.1-1. The number of   above ground floors envisaged for living and meeting  of people, but not provided for productive activities, no more than two, with a ceiling height of 3 meters, with a total area of no more than 1400 square meters, construction area of 1,000 sq. m. is applied  notification production, and their construction requires to submit only the architectural and planning section of the construction project.

80.2.  The construction of a house in respect of which  is applied the notification production does not require permission.

80.3. Architectural and planning section of the project of building an apartment house, in respect of which  is applied production notification,  is drawn up in accordance with the detailed plan of the area on which  it is planned to build a house. In the absence of such a plan is verified compliance with the architectural and planning section of the project of construction with requirements of Article 11 of the Code.

80.4. The customer must notify the relevant executive authority (executive power of the  district) on the construction plans, and provide it with the architectural and planning section of the draft of an apartment house to check for compliance with the requirements stipulated in Articles 80.1, 80.1-1 and 80.3 of this Code.

If within one month the relevant executive authority does not raise customer complaints about the project, the customer can begin construction.

80.5. Supervision of construction of an apartment house, in respect of which the notification production in accordance with the architectural and planning section of the construction project is carried out by relevant executive authority.

It is also important to take into account the intermediate distance between the wall of the house, as referred to in article 69.4 of the Code. Except for the intermediate distance to the fence, which leads to the roadway, on all the other sides of the land adjacent intermediate distance should be 0.6 of the height of the walls of the house. If, for example, the height of the walls of the house is 4 meters, the distance to the fence must be not more than 2.4 meters.

Owners of sites should bear in mind that according to Article 79.1.3. fences (including fences made of natural and artificial stone) with height up to 2.2 meters, located along the streets, or on the border with neighboring land are built without permission. And nobody has the right to demand a permission.

Finally, we must bear in mind that "The Detailed Rules for zoning, building types and scale" of the Cabinet of Ministers № 51 of February 21, 2014, and particularly paragraph 4.13 requires that the area under construction of individual housing should not exceed 0.20 parts of the land area. This means that on the area of 6 acres the developer can build a housing  not exceeding 120 square meters  for one floor.

These are the main conditions of the individual building, which should be followed in the design of the house and the application to the executive power. But even this  cannot protect  from the officials, bribe-takers.