Names of land owners will be declassified
This will help to get rid of corruption in land relations
Ukrainesummarizes the first results of the use of public electronic land map, which started working on January 1, 2013. Head of the State Agency of Land Resources Serhii Tymchenko presented a report on the results at the Cabinet of Ministers recently.
“The citizens will pay less thanks to automation. The cost of administrative services [registration of land lots. – Author] will be reduced by almost 30 percent [from 255 to 184 hryvnias. – Author]. The corresponding government decree will be published within the next few days,” he assured. Let us also remind that the procedure of the right to land registration was changed on January 1, 2013, as well, and now land is attributed to the category of real estate. So, now not only the State Agency of Land Resources, but the Ministry of Justice (the State Registration Service of Ukraine) also is engaged in land registration. Land resources authorities register lots, provide them with a cadastral number, create land records, register limitations (water protection zones, power lines, gas pipelines) and give out free extracts from the cadastre. And the State Registration Service registers ownership rights and rights to constant use, and also rent agreements.
The public map contains information on land lots: dimensions, size, category of property, and end use. The cadastral numbers of lots are also indicated. However, there is no personal data of land owners or tenants, since it contradicts the law on personal data protection.
“The absence of this information is a bad thing. Since land cadastre has to clearly show who owns what in the country. Ukrainian prototype of the cadastre does not answer these important questions because of the law on personal data. But an exception should be made in this case,” told The Day Maksym Fedorchenko, head of the information and resource center Land Relations Reform in Ukraine. According to him, the real owners’ data should be open for public, because Ukraine occupies top positions in rankings of corrupt countries. That is why land relations require maximum openness and transparency, he says. Fedorchenko thinks that there is no point in the data protection, since one can buy practically any database because of the current level of corruption.
It seems that the officials from the State Agency of Land Resources also think about changing this clause. Tymchenko promised to speak about the initiative to disable the law on personal data protection within land cadastre. “I think the personal data law should not work within the public cadastre map. Citizens have a right to know all the information about land lots, and the data on their owners in particular,” he said.
If MPs support this initiative, it will help to get rid of corruption in land relations, Fedorchenko says.
