Abolition of the free of charge land privatization is an effective safeguard against corruption schemes in the field of land relations – NACP analytical review

The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) detected and analyzed corruption schemes in the procedure of free of charge privatization of state and municipal land. The draft Anti-Corruption Strategy for 2020–2024 defines that the free of charge privatization of state and municipal land is one of the largest sources of corrupt practices in land relations. As the procedure for transferring land ownership requires radically new organizational and legal approaches to ensuring the effective disposal of state and municipal land, the NACP analyzed the most common corruption schemes related to the free of charge privatization and identified factors contributing to corruption. Thus, among the most common schemes, NACP experts identified the following:

• sale of information on the location of vacant land plots;
• corrupt practices during the granting of permits for the development of land management projects and registration of land plots;
  • forgery of decisions of local governments on land plot disposal;
  • distortion of the mechanism of free of charge privatization in favour of commercial developers;
  • abuse of the right to receive land plots free of charge and “re-privatization”;
  • use of military combatant benefits for obtaining land plots within corruption schemes.
  In order to eliminate these schemes, NACP experts advise replacing the free of charge privatization with a more effective compensation mechanism; digitalizing all processes in the land market; publishing information on land plots and privatization entities free of charge; conducting a transparent and complete audit of the municipal and state land disposal, etc. A detailed analysis of corruption schemes and recommendations for their elimination can be found at: https://bit.ly/36DoCYP