State Service for Property Issues about the incident at the auction in Ganja

Baku/19.03.23/Turan: The State Service for Property Issues reacted to an article published on the Turan News Agency's web page "Corruption investigator Orkhan Ismayilov beaten in Ganja branch of State Property Committee." The explanation provided to the agency about the incident reads as follows:

"In Azerbaijan, decisions on putting up land plots on the balance sheet of municipalities for tenders or auctions in order to transfer them to ownership or lease to individuals and legal entities for the production of agricultural products, the construction of private residential buildings or business facilities are made by the municipalities themselves.

According to the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan No. 972 dated October 23, 2003, the duties of the State Service for Property Issues under the Ministry of Economy include only the organization of tenders and auctions. The holding of tenders and auctions is provided by a commission composed of representatives of the Civil Service, local executive authorities, and the municipal council.

Practice shows that in many cases the land plots put up for tenders and auctions are in actual use and there are already various buildings on them. In addition, most of the agricultural lands put up for tenders and auctions are lands with expired leases that are still used by the former tenant. In this regard, in order to ensure the requirements of the rules, auctions have turned into a procedure for registration of citizens' rights to lands in their actual use.

On March 16, 2023, during the land tender, an incident occurred in the office of the Ganja branch of the State Property Service, located on the fourth floor of the administrative building of the Executive Power of the city of Ganja.

It should be noted that a member of the family of the martyr (spouse) Zahida Hasanova and citizen Orkhan Ismailov participated in the competition. A plot of land with a private house, in which the family of the martyr has been living for more than 15 years, was put up for the competition.

On this day, Orkhan Ismailov received the status of a participant in all the land plots put up for the competition (25 cases). Before the start of the competition, the members of the commission informed him that the land plots put up for auction were in actual use. However, he ignored this information.

During the competition, unknown persons, stating that the relevant land plot is in the actual use of Zahida Hasanova, put pressure on Orkhan Ismayilov to refuse to participate in the competition. Due to the disagreements between them, the competition could not be held. In connection with the incident, the Ganja City Territorial Department of the State Property Service immediately appealed to law enforcement agencies.

In order to find out whether violations of the law were committed during the organization of the competition by employees of the State Service for Property Issues, an internal investigation was appointed.

At the same time, in order to solve these problems, the State Service is preparing proposals for amendments to the current legislation."—0—