Governance in Land Administration

1. Governance in Land Administration Kyrgyz Republic February, 200 Asyl Undeland aundeland@yahoo.com

2. Kyrgyz Republic is a small landlocked mountainous country located in north east Central Asia bordering Kazakhstan, China, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. One of the Former SU countries, independent since 1991. • Territory is about 198,500 square kilometers, 90% under the mountain ranges of Tian Shan and Pamir Alai, 7% of arable land • Population 5.3 million with majority ethnic Kyrgyz • 75% Muslim, 20% Russian Orthodox • Poor country with GDP per capita about US$542 (2006)

3. 1. Land Policy Leading to Tenure Security • Kyrgyz political leadership was leader among post-Soviet countries in setting a course for a land market based on private ownership • Break-up of collective farms (from 500 to 300,000) • Immediate, cost-free transfer of property rights in settled areas • Private ownership introduced in 1998 Constitutional Amendment and new Land Code in 1999 (land distributed to 90% of rural population) • Launched a new property registry system and conducted systematic registration of real property rights in 1999-2007 with donor support, especially the World Bank

4. 2. Property Rights Have Legal Recognition • Constitutional recognition of private, municipal, and state property • Civil Code explicitly recognizes that ownership consists of a bundle of three rights: • Possession • Use • Disposition • Registration system guarantees protection of these rights • Including use rights (e.g. easements, leases), but these are commonly not entered into the system

5. 3. Effective Service Delivery by Land Institutions Range of services: • Registration and guarantees of property rights (Gosregister) • Regulation of use rights, including urban zoning, regulation of use of agricultural land • Regulation of public land (addressed in Principle 5)

6. Registration Services • Widely used for dispositions, but infrequently used for registration of use rights and passive approach to right of possession • Registration often occurs when a sale is imminent or when property is sued as a collateral • Most current ownership was captured in systematic registration

7. Regulation of Use Rights • Urban land planning • Legislation in place to transition from Soviet-era restrictive ‘targeted use’ to lists of permitted types of use/development in given zones • In practice, still requires case-by-case interaction and approval by local architecture departments, with the latter exercising significant discretion • Overlapping authority between local governments and State Gosregister and architecture departments makes process complicated • Rural land use • Indicative plans for growing, but in practice limited control • Limited market information for private farmers • Restrictions on publicly owned land (pastures, some reserve arable land, forests) • Some restrictions on ownership of agricultural land (i.e. foreign citizens, legal entities)

8. 4. Access to Information • Gosregister has open records • Initial resistance in legislation, but confirmed open access to property records since 2004 (According to public opinion survey, roughly half the surveyed clients are not aware of Gosregister’s provision of information about all real estate and a third was unaware of a formal system of payment for faster processing). • New general zoning plans, if they exist, are public, but detailed plans in architecture departments are not

9. 5. Transparent Public Land Management • State-owned agricultural land • Pastures • 85% of all agricultural land • Agricultural Land Reserve Fund • 25% of arable land, set aside for multiple uses including expansion of settlements, special seed and other farms, as a reserve for those who did not get title in initial privatization • Forests Fund • State-owned urban land • Parcels attached to publicly owned buildings (schools, etc.) • Land that is neither state nor privately owned is considered municipal property owned by local governments

10. Issues with Public Land Governance • Incomplete, inaccurate inventories of all categories of public land: LRF, pastures, municipal land • Despite legal requirements for competition and transparency, frequent non-transparent, corrupt allocation practices • Weak capacity in government institutions • Common property issues are ignored (pastures)

11. 6. Transparent Real Property Valuation and Taxation • Land tax is based on normative values for categories of agricultural and urban land • Rates are set by Parliament annually, with local variation and are very low • Insignificant revenues from the tax

12. 7. Enforcement of Rights and Dispute Resolution • State judicial and law enforcement systems are widely seen as corrupt and time-consuming • Moderately greater trust in local governments, but still seen as ineffective. • Preference for alternative resolution of disputes in local communities through elders and other informal mechanisms

13. Key Problem Areas • Formal governance institutions, particularly local governments, urban land planning entities, courts, and law enforcement are viewed as corrupt, poor managers of public land, and inefficient providers of services • Clarification of functions among government entities for public management of land

14. Improving Service Delivery in State registration Agency of Right to Immovable property (Gosregister) • Gosregister generally is rated better, has clearer procedures • Gosregister has put relatively more emphasis to customer satisfaction and continues to improve In 2007 Gosregister with the support from the World Bank introduced a new system of service quality assessment through an internally organized customer survey and evaluation mechanism

15. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicGosregister Service Delivery Improvement • 10 Gosregister monitoring specialists trained on data entry, processing and analysis and equipped with manual • Poll developed and conducting with experts • Data entry and analysis • Presentation of results to Gosregister management • Presentation of results to the public

16. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicSURVEY SAMPLE - Public Opinion Survey • A total of 1,106 people were interviewed in the course of the survey: • 747 were clients/non-clients (68% of the sample), of which 549 were clients and 198 non-clients; • 135 (12% of sample) were representatives of various professional organizations providing services connected to the activities of Gosregister; • 223 staff of Gosregister (20% of the sample).

17. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicGENERAL EVALUATION OF SERVICESPublic Opinion Survey • Most partner organizations think the registration system positively influences the investment climate, improves legal environment for business development and leads to decrease of corruption in country. • Gosregister rated as having played a crucial positive role in development of land and real estate markets, securing ownership rights, promoting growth of small and medium entrepreneurship accessing credit resources.

18. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicGENERAL EVALUATION OF SERVICESPublic Opinion Survey • Gosregister’s services are generally evaluated as average, but its overall role is rated as valuable. This is largely to be expected since it is unlikely that clients will give high grades for excellence in tasks that are mostly routine in nature. • Human resources are seen to be by far the most important factor influencing quality of services. Over half the respondents noted competency and ethics (with another 13% noting human resources related issues of wages and staffing numbers) while other factors such as physical plant and the legal framework were seen as far less important

19. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicConclusions for Service Provision Indicators (SPI) Public Opinion Survey • Negligible use of Gosregister for lease rights (only 1.3% of client cases involved registration of a lease) suggests that need for guarantees of lessees' rights is not strong. It also is likely that tax avoidance influences this decision. • Non-use of Gosregister service by non clients points to issues regarding the convenience of service to clients. A high proportion of non-clients cited fear of bureaucracy and complexity and lack of time and means as reasons for non-usage.

20. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicConclusions for Service Provision Indicators (SPI) Public Opinion Survey • Roughly half the surveyed clients are not aware of Gosregister’s provision of information about all real estate and a third was unaware of a formal system of payment for faster processing. • Media and local governments play a large role in the public’s understanding of Gosregister. Gosregister should use these channels as much as resources permit.

21. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicConclusions for Service Provision Indicators (SPI) Public Opinion Survey • Gosregister can do more to provide information directly, including maintain phone lines and a better website. • The level of physical access is quite good, with nearly 90% of clients having to spend under an hour to travel to their LRO. • LROs should consider means to encourage more of a ‘one stop shop’ for all that is required in registration. Even if other organizations are performing the service, organizing banking services in close proximity to LROs should be possible.

22. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicConclusions for Service Provision Indicators (SPI) Public Opinion Survey • Only 1/3 of clients had difficulty with the registration process, and of these only about 40% had problems with Gosregister’s procedures per se (other problems related to right-establishing documents or other agencies). • Fees are considered mostly affordable and reasonable. 11% of clients and organizations thought that they were not affordable, with an additional 14% thinking that they were too high in conjunction with other organizations’ fees. Only 25% thought that the amount of fees was not justified by the services provided.

23. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicConclusions for Professional Competency IndicatorsPublic Opinion Survey • A high proportion of representatives of associated organizations who are competent clients (58%) and Gosregister staff (77%) state that staff sometimes make mistakes with data entry. • The most prevalent mistake is incorrect entry of names and addresses, which is not a question of professional skills, but attentiveness to detail. • Gosregister staff generally feel skills are average and that additional training is needed.

24. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicConclusions for Professional Competency IndicatorsPublic Opinion Survey • Measures are needed to increase accountability for Gosregister staff for their mistakes. The Guarantee Fund has not been fully operating. Staff feel that they are measured in terms of timeliness rather than quality of data entry. • There is widespread satisfaction (77% of clients) with the speed of services. • Only about 5% of clients citing delays due to attempts to extract informal payments, though some professional associated organizations noted that they regularly provided such payments.

25. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicClient Relations Indicators Public Opinion Survey • More than 80% of clients and organization found that Gosregister staff behaved appropriately in carrying out their duties. • Most clients provide average ratings for convenience of how LROs are organized. • Convenience appears to depend on the individual effort of management, not standards. Gosregister should consider mandating and monitoring adherence to basic quality standards, such as heating premises, size of print for information stands, and organizing other services nearby. • Gosregister is generally thought to be fair in its dealing with clients (2/3 of clients).

26. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicClient Relations Indicators Public Opinion Survey • Assessments of corruption are largely inconclusive, though there is some corruption in the system. Only about 1/3 of clients and organizations thought that there was corruption, and only about half of these directly encountered it. • When corruption occurs, it is to ‘facilitate’ procedures rather than change decisions. Most cited instances of corruption were to speed up Gosregister’s work and get help with other entities, while only 8% involved an effort to change the substance of what Gosregister was doing (i.e. alter areas, allow improper right-establishing documents). • Clients have little information on formal recourse to appeal adverse decisions made by Gosregister.

27. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicRECOMMENDATIONS OF CLIENTSPublic Opinion Survey • Increase transparency of Gosregister work • Increase responsibilities of Gosregister staff for their work • Increase accountability of services • Improve legal framework

28. Governance in Land AdministrationKyrgyz RepublicGosregister’s follow up • Conduct awareness campaign on importance of registration of rights to land and property • Improve dissemination of information on Gosregister’s services through notaries, banks, village governments • Improve registration facilities for clients – better information materials, convenient places • Facilitate introduction of automated registration system and unified information system for accuracy and speed of services and better access to information • Develop and implement PR strategy of Gosregister