The main corruption risk of the draft law No 5655 on reform of the urban planning sphere is its elaboration with violations of the principle of transparency and consideration of the public opinion.
This position is stated by the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) in a letter to the National Union of Architects of Ukraine (NUAU), the deputy chairman of the Architectural Chamber of NUAU Anna Kiriy told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The National Agency has always emphasized – both in its public position at the Committee’s November 28, 2022 meeting and in its informal communication with diplomats from the G7 countries – that the main corruption risk of the draft law is that it is not developed in an open and inclusive way, in violation of the principle of transparency and consideration of public opinion, established by the Law of Ukraine “On the Principles of State Regulatory Policy in the Business”, – said in a letter of NACA.
At the same time, the specialized committee of the Verkhovna Rada did not fully take into account the observations of the NAPC on the finalization of the bill at the meeting on December 9, the agency notes.
According to the NACC, the finalized bill still contains a rule that establishes the principle of tacit consent to restore the right to perform preparatory and construction works by the customer / contractor in the case of failure by the authorized person of the body of urban control for entry into the Register of construction activities to file a claim for termination of such right within 30 days from the date of the writ.
In turn, the National Agency recommended deleting this rule in the final version of the law.
The NACP emphasizes that its representatives did not participate in the meeting of the Profile Committee on December 9 and the Parliament meeting on December 13, when the law was passed, and therefore can not fully evaluate the extent to which its recommendations and comments were taken into account in the final version of the law.
The National Agency also never campaigned either for or against the bill, but conducted an anticorruption assessment and additional analysis of the bill with the provision of comments within its competence, the letter said.
As it was reported, on December 13, the Verkhovna Rada adopted as a whole the draft law № 5655 on reforming the sphere of urban planning. It was voted for by 228 deputies. A petition with a demand to veto the bill has collected more than 25 thousand signatures and is pending consideration by the president.
Earlier, on December 1, 2022, the bill was withdrawn from consideration by Parliament. The Association of Ukrainian Cities, mayors of cities, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy and the National Union of Architects of Ukraine insisted on its revision.
