Those who prevent this are government officials

A few years ago, statistics showed that there were more than half a million illegal buildings in Azerbaijan. At that time, there was a concern in government agencies that documenting illegal buildings on the basis of a state project is one of the important issues. There have even been pilot projects to document illegal buildings in several settlements. According to the information we received from the people living in those areas at that time, the locals appreciated the project. Such pilot projects were also praised in government agencies. About 80,000 illegal buildings were documented on the basis of pilot projects, and about 5,000 buildings were sued for demolition. Due to the documentation of illegal constructions on the basis of these pilot projects, the state budget received more than 2 million manat a year. However, for some reason the process did not continue. Usually, pilot projects are implemented for testing, and if successful, the process begins in this direction en masse. If these pilot projects are appreciated by both the government and the citizens, if they are beneficial for both parties, then why the work in this direction has been stopped, no mass continuation has been observed?

In our opinion, although the pilot projects aimed at documenting illegally constructed facilities and residential areas were successful, it was government officials who prevented their popularization. If at the time of the pilot projects there were half a million illegal buildings in the country, now their number has reached one million, ie increased instead of decreased. This can be considered a "contribution" of large and small Chinese government officials.

Thus, every year a part of illegally constructed buildings is documented at the initiative of citizens. During this documentation, large bribes are paid to various government agencies and courts. Therefore, government officials managed to stop the process by various means, advancing their personal interests. Because illegal constructions have already become a source of income for various Chinese officials of the state. On the one hand, large bribes are taken from citizens during the creation of illegal buildings, and on the other hand, bribes are taken from entrepreneurs in the process of documenting these buildings. Depending on the location, in some cases a bribe of up to half the construction cost is required when documenting an illegal construction. Due to the above-mentioned reasons, the number of illegal constructions in the country is growing day by day.

Due to this, both the state budget loses funds and our citizens are deprived of the right to own halal housing and other facilities. Only officials win. If we pay 15 manats a year to the state for each illegal construction, it will be equal to 15 million manats. But there are some buildings that have to pay a tax of 100 manat a year for their area. Thus, the state budget loses at least 15-20 million manat a year due to non-documentation of illegal constructions. On the other hand, our citizens can neither register nor, if necessary, certify the right of entrepreneurship in the apartments they build through their own labor. For this reason, they cannot pledge the building and take money from banks. This means that in the issue of illegal construction, the interests of officials take precedence over the interests of citizens and the state.

Akif Nasirli