“Research on Corruption and Land Administration Process”

The research is being carried out by the Center for Social Expertises of the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in cooperation with the NGO “Economists Club”, within the framework of the USAID-funded project “Support of agricultural development” implemented by the “Kimonix International Inc.” in Ukraine.

Project Manager: Trofymenko O.V.

Implementationperiod: June – August 2017.

Goal of the project is to determine the valid and reliable indicators of the monetary and time costs of citizens / organizations for the implementation of procedures for the registration of land plots, as well as the evaluation of the level of corruption in the agricultural sector.

Research objectives:

1. Development of complete list of administrative procedures necessary for registration of agricultural land by citizens and organizations (individuals and legal entities);
2. Provision of assessment of time and monetary costs of legal entities and individuals related to administrative and other actions (services) in conducting basic land transactions, based on a developed list of these procedures;
3. Development of recommendations for the introduction of a system for monitoring administrative procedures when designing land plots for agricultural use by individuals and legal entities;
4. Assessing the level of corruption in the agrarian sector, based on the developed methodology for calculating the level of corruption on the basis of the revealed percentage of corruption reports in the agrarian sector.

Target groups: agricultural enterprises, farmers’ and private agricultural farms, land experts.

Geography of the study: 11 oblasts of Ukraine, namely: Vinnitsa, Dnipropetrovsk, Transcarpathian, Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernihiv oblasts

The sample is 2,400 respondents (face-to-face interview):

1. Agricultural enterprises and farms – 654 respondents;
2. Private agricultural farms – 1578 respondents;
3. Non-raw material enterprises – 168 respondents.

Expert Survey: it is planned to interview 120 experts on land issues according to the following categories:

1. representatives of local authorities (among deputies and heads of village, town, city councils, their deputies and assistants);
2. employees of the territorial organs of the State Geodetic Committee;
3. state registrars of real rights (employees of the Centers for the provision of administrative services);
4. notaries
5. land surveyors who hold positions in the structure of the local authority;
6. representatives of economic entities providing land management services;
7. representatives of economic entities providing services on expert monetary valuation of land;
8. employees of legal companies providing services on land issues or lawyers of local councils;

A survey of experts at the national level is also planned: representatives of all-Ukrainian public organizations, anti-corruption bodies, professional associations (land managers, farmers, producers of agricultural products, appraisers), scientific and educational institutions, independent experts, deputies of the VerkhovnaRada (their assistants), representatives Central executive authorities, whose competence includes land issues and issues of agricultural development (Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing -Communal Economy, Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Ministry of Environment), think tanks, journalists, representatives of Reformed communities. In total 32 national level experts.

According to the results of the project, a consolidated report will be prepared.