Deregulation in construction sector and elimination of corruption risks are among the priority tasks of the Ministry of Regional Development, Building, Housing and Utilities of Ukraine. It has developed an anticorruption roadmap in synergy with international partners and experts (BRDO and IDLO), as well as the public sector - the Rehabilitation Package of Reforms (RPR) and the Civic Initiative Together Against Corruption. This was stated at a meeting with representatives of the European Business Association by Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities of Ukraine Hennadii Zubko.

"We are currently working along three main directions: the review of State Building Codes (DBN), transparency and publicity of urban development policies, and improvement of the system of state architectural control," said Hennadii Zubko.

The Vice Prime Minister told that the revision of obsolete DBNs and the approval of deviations are in the focus of the Ministry of Regional Development, Building, Housing and Utilities.

"The launched system work should bring this area of standardization in compliance with European standards. The revision of state building codes is permanent and systematic process, as science forges ahead, new materials and construction technologies emerge, requirements for energy efficiency, ecological compatibility, etc. are raised", the top official explained.

Transparency and publicity of urban development policy is another direction for the Ministry of Regional Development to focus on to eliminate corruption in the industry. "Our objective is to ensure the quality and transparency of the development of documentation on spatial planning (urban planning documentation). Among the approved in the first reading are bill No. 6403 aimed at providing the consolidated territorial communities (OTGs) with the single documentation on spatial planning and bill No. 7085 which establishes a unified procedure for assigning an address to the construction object and improves the procedure for licensing business activities joined with the construction of architectural objects. The development of the Urban Cadastre has begun", told Hennadii Zubko.

One more significant step in preventing corruption was the adoption last year of Laws No. 1817 and No. 2020, that simplified the permitting procedures, canceled the complexity categories of construction objects and transferred to the class of consequences (CC1, CC2, CC3), determined the list of construction activities that do not require a permission, canceled the demand for obtaining initial data and technical specifications from the SES, etc.

"There have been introduced e-services in construction and licensing. To date, over 4200 e-services have been provided in construction sector. In order to prevent abuses by controlling authorities, the Government's resolution sets clear deadlines for developers to eliminate the shortcomings found during inspections of construction objects", he emphasized.

According to the Vice Prime Minister, an important block is the decentralization of the powers of the State Architecture and Building Inspection (SABI). "By now, already 92 settlements have taken authorities from the SABI, in particular 21 cities of regional importance, except for Poltava, Khmelnytsky and Zaporizhzhya. Now, in synergy with the State Regulatory Service we analyze all regulatory acts that work on local level. Our goal is to eliminate all corruption factors that hinder the development of construction business on the ground and improve the investment climate through this", underscores Hennadii Zubko.