The situation at customs can be significantly improved in a year by implementing six key steps, including common bases with the EU and joint checkpoints, electronic queues, rotations, scanners and digitalization, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said at a press conference in Kiev on Friday.
“I have a clear understanding of what the state needs to do now at customs, and we are actually on that path. I voiced it, there are five or six steps. The first one is to enter into a common database system with the EU,” said the prime minister.
He explained that it will allow to load a car in any point of Europe, to take a single customs declaration and to transit with it through any checkpoint in any city of Ukraine and to clear customs by this single declaration.
Shmygal noted that now Ukraine gets access to certain sections of this register, but the base of the customs value remains closed for the time being.
“Now we are working with the European Commission on a political decision to open full access to the joint registers of databases of Europe, to make 99% impossible as an element of abuse through customs mechanisms,” – said Prime Minister.
The second step he called increasing the number of checkpoints with joint control and with shared databases, as currently there is only one such checkpoint, built for “Euro 2012” in the Lviv region.
The third element of the reform, according to Shmygal, is the rotation of employees. “Why are there temptations at customs? Because when people work long in one place, there is an opportunity to see and negotiate. We have to overcome this temptation,” said the prime minister.
Shmygal stressed that scanners will be an important innovation, because they are necessary for the implementation of the fifth element – the risk-oriented system, which will reduce the proportion of goods subject to customs and border control to 7%. Reliable exporters and importers will only need to check the car on the scanner to confirm the absence of drugs or migrants, explained the head of the government.
The sixth element the prime minister indicated digitalization, namely the introduction of electronic queuing. According to him, the implemented experiment with the electronic queue at the Krakowiec point is a success, and now the state plans to extend it to all points.
“I would call all of these approaches the Six Elements of Customs Reform. They are all simple, but they will practically eliminate the possibility of corrupt influences at customs at all. We are working on this now, there is a team solution. It cannot be done in a day or a month, but it can be done in a year,” explained Shmygal.
Speaking about personnel decisions, he pointed out that formally State Customs Service is within the competence of the Ministry of Finance. “But I do not want to and I can’t put the responsibility on the Minister of Finance, because this is a joint responsibility of the government team,” said the prime minister.
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.
A petition demanding to veto the draft law No.5655 on reforming the sphere of urban planning, posted on the website of the President of Ukraine, has collected more than 25 thousand votes on the day of its adoption by the Parliament.
Now the petition should be considered by the head of state.
“New town-planning regulations under the guise of liberalizing the urban planning sphere and accelerating the construction actually untie the hands of large developers, who now do not have to go through checks from local authorities. Checks of construction and documentation of the project can be carried out by private firms, and the role of chief architects of the cities in this process is greatly restricted. If the law is adopted by the majority of deputies of the Verkhovna Rada at the next session, the process of chaotic development of our cities and the desecration of historical monuments will be accelerated,” – says the text of the petition.
As it was reported, on December 13, the Verkhovna Rada passed the bill as a whole #5655. It was voted for by 228 deputies.
Earlier, on December 1, 2022, the bill was withdrawn from consideration by Parliament. The Association of Ukrainian Cities, mayors, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC), the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, and the National Union of Architects of Ukraine insisted on its revision.
Ukraine can easily cope with EU demands for reforms, said German Ambassador to Ukraine Anka Feldhusen.
“I think that Ukraine can easily cope with them, because these are really demands that have already been in place for many years. There is already progress. Perhaps not the progress that Ukrainians themselves would like, especially in the field of judicial reform … We, your partners, especially the G7, are constantly in contact with the Ukrainian government regarding these issues,” Feldhusen said at a briefing at the Ukraine media center on Monday.
The diplomat stressed that for her the most important issue has always been judicial reform in Ukraine.
“We have successfully implemented the decentralization reform. I think that this is really a success story. But the judicial reform is the second reform that will really change the country. All the years that I have been working in Ukraine, I have watched the steps that have been taken, I I will continue to do so,” she said.
Feldhusen pointed out that judicial reform “has never been easy.”
“But if there is political will, a lot can be done there,” she said.
As reported, the European Commission recommended that the European Council grant Ukraine the status of a candidate member of the European Union with the subsequent implementation of the necessary steps. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen indicated that this meant the country would pursue a number of further important reforms.
Experts from the US George Washington University will help Ukraine attract external research grants for the implementation of irrigation reform, conduct educational programs through the exchange of specialists and provide the country with technical assistance, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food said on its website on Thursday.
According to it, the relevant agreements were reached during a meeting between Minister of Agricultural Policy Roman Leshchenko and the staff of the George Washington University, which took place in early September.
The parties at the meeting discussed a partnership in which the institution will help Ukraine find external research grants for irrigation reform. The university also intends to conduct educational programs through the exchange of specialists with Ukraine and provide it with technical assistance.
“We need new technologies to change our environmental philosophy, because Ukraine can lose a lot of fertile land without a high level of water management,” the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy quoted Leshchenko as saying.
The minister specified that Ukraine creates conditions for attracting foreign investment and developing public-private partnerships in land relations. According to him, after the opening of the land market on July 1, Ukraine intends to form a legal basis for the activities of the organization of water users and the creation of mechanisms for attracting investments in the construction of a new reclamation infrastructure and the functioning of the existing one.
As reported, the United States may provide Ukraine with a credit line totaling $4 billion for the period 2022-2030 to modernize irrigation infrastructure. The investment project was proposed to the American partners by President Volodymyr Zelensky for consideration during his working trip to the United States last week.
In April 2021, the Cabinet of Ministers called for the restoration of irrigation systems for agricultural lands in the southern regions of the country by the end of this year.
The restoration of the reclamation industry has become a national project until 2024. In 2021, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy launches a pilot project to restore irrigation systems in Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhia regions.
EXTERNAL GRANTS, GEORGE WASHINGTON, LAND RECLAMATION INDUSTRY, REFORM, UNIVERSITY
Bills on the reform of architectural and construction control should be developed with the direct participation of the architectural professional community.
This opinion was expressed by President of the National Union of Architects of Ukraine Oleksandr Chyzhevsky during a press conference devoted to how bill No. 5655 can destroy the architecture of Ukraine and architects as a profession held at Interfax-Ukraine.
“We highly and positively assess the efforts of legislators to eradicate corruption in the construction industry by introducing elements of the Unified Electronic System into practice. This should become a part of the overall process of digitalization of the country, the introduction of ubiquitous e-government. However, the professional community is protesting against the provisions of bill No. 5655, which curtail the powers of the architect and unbalance the industry as a whole,” Chyzhevsky said.
According to Deputy Chair of the Architectural Chamber of the National Union of Architects Anna Kyrii, today none of the numerous amendments that were transferred to the text of bill No. 5655 have been taken into account.
“In its current version, bill No. 5655 unprecedentedly deprives architects of the rights and opportunities to influence and control their project,” Kyrii said.
Kyrii called “the destruction of authorship as such” the most painful blow.
“For some reason, the creators of the bill pay attention to only one point, which directly determines that authorship is deprived if the project is carried out using budgetary funds. Yes, this point is the most terrible, because the architect is deprived of copyright property rights to the project even before that moment he began to design. However, this is not the only moment – dozens of points of the bill, one way or another, deprive or squeeze the rights of the architect, or discredit the architect in front of the rest of the project,” Kyrii said.
At the same time, the expert said that the practice of attracting famous architects to the implementation of projects significant for society, which are financed from budgetary or donor funds, is popular all over the world. And this increases the credibility of both customers and architects.
According to Chair of the expert commission of the Architectural Chamber of the National Union of Architects Olha Podushkina, the property rights of architects are protected by the law of Ukraine on copyright and related rights (section II, Article 15).
“And although the majority thinks that an architect’s copyright is about ownership of an idea and concept, in fact, an architect’s copyright is primarily about his responsibility for the quality and safety of the project,” Podushkina said.
The expert said that for an architect, a project is not only a set of reinforced concrete structures, glass and engineering systems, but a harmonized spatial structure of the human life environment, which should be created taking into account aesthetic principles, reliability, environmental friendliness, and functional comfort. “Only an architect can organize the process of implementing his project and help the customer to obtain a high-quality product. Only an architect can control the implementation of the designed solutions that shall meet all standards. Only in this case the building will serve the projected period, it will be safe and comfortable, aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly,” Podushkina said.
According to Kyrii, the current version of bill No. 5655 creates a corruption risk for projects implemented using budgetary funds: if, after the approval of the project and its estimate, the customer, seeking to save money, makes a choice in favor of materials and solutions of lower quality.
“If the architect does not have leverage to influence this choice, and this is also a security issue, buildings will simply come down with cheaper materials. On the other hand, if accounts are settled according to the previously approved estimate, and cheap materials are used, who will check it? and who will be responsible for this?” Kyrii said.
Chyzhevsky said that the rights of architects should be harmoniously combined with responsibilities.
“Duties can be fully fulfilled only when there are full rights, in particular, property copyright,” Chyzhevsky said.
The experts called the creation of the Urban Development Chamber as another controversial point of the bill.
According to Kyrii, this initiative leads to the strengthening of centralized power instead of expanding the rights of horizontal structures, i.e., in fact, it leads to the leveling of the very practice of self-regulation.
According to her, bill No. 5655 will unbalance the entire system.
“An architect is deprived of his rights and at the same time he is entrusted with even greater responsibility. We are becoming even more dependent on those who are still in charge of the market. The main resource is concentrated in the developers, those who distribute funds. In most cases, they are the initiators of violations of state building codes, saving resources, replacing quality materials with cheaper ones,” the expert said.
She drew attention to the fact that at the same time, it is for developers that the current version of the bill expands the rights.
“The Urban Development Chamber will supervise the responsible executors of the works, and the developers will receive both property copyrights and urban planning control, which they can order from legal entities,” Kyrii said.
According to Chyzhevsky, the organization of separate bodies with the broadest possible powers is extremely dangerous.
“This creates many additional levers of influence on responsible executors, which is demonstrated by the experience of SACI,” Chyzhevsky said.
The expert said that self-regulation is a sign of our times.
“On the one hand, this is a component of the formation of civil society, which ensures stable democracy, which is so important for our country. On the other hand, the implementation of the powers delegated by the state, the process of certification of a creative employee by a creative employee, which is implemented by the National Union of Architects, meets not only the recommendations of the World Organization of Architects, but also the obligations of the state of Ukraine to the WTO and the EU,” Chyzhevsky said.
ARCHITECTURAL CONTROL, DEVELOPED, PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY, REFORM
