TEXT 27 LAND ADMINISTRATION

Land administration is the set of functions that facilitates the implementation of policies developed for the management of land resources. This includes the institutional arrangements, the legislative processes, and the resource requirements necessary to obtain the highest and best use of all land: urban and rural; private and public. The administrative processes and procedures for land take place at several levels and across several organizations in Kazakhstan.

In the context of this assessment, the following land administration functions will be considered:

• Management, preparation, and maintenance of the land cadastre, including legal and technical aspects

such as valuation, surveying and mapping, and information technology;

• Operations and maintenance of the immovable registration system; and

• The land tenure processes that provide for the definition and distribution of land rights.

Kazakhstan operates a dual agency approach to cadastre and registration. The cadastre is operated and maintained by the LRMA, and the registration system is operated and maintained by the Ministry of Justice.

This is similar to approaches found in parts of western and southern Europe countries like Germany and Austria have been well served for many decades. However, such countries as Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Norway that have traditionally maintained a dual agency approach have renewed their immovable property and land administration systems, they have integrated the responsibilities of the cadastre and the registration organizations and have adopted a single agency approach. Since much of the data about the immovable property contained in these organizations is common to both, it makes sense to combine the systems and reduce duplication. This has been done to reduce administrative and management overhead costs, take advantage of access to technology, and reduce real estate costs.

There is a land relations department located in each of the oblast, municipal city, and districtlevel akimats (local administration institution). This department has been established over the past few months. During the assessment, no documentary information could be gathered to define the role of these departments. The assessment team interviewed the head of the land relations department for Kokshetau Oblast, but it was unable to articulate the exact responsibilities for its department at the time. It explained that the land

relations departments are being established to create more transparency in the akimat as it relates to decisions on land use approvals and other land management decisions. It reported that there was a document defining the roles and responsibilities of the departments and promised to provide a copy. However, the project has not been able to obtain a copy.

There are currently no formal arrangements for sharing of information between the LRMA and the Immovable Property Registration System (IPRS). The graphic information contained in the agency could be made available to the IPRS and any legal information related to land contained in the IPRS could be transferred to the LRMA. This would be a very beneficial arrangement for both the IPRS and the LRMA, as it relates to carrying out their respective mandates and serving their clients.

The IPRS currently has no interest in having graphic information such as cadastre maps that show the location of any immovable property submitted for registration in the system. According to the register in Kokshetau, the only maps at the IPRS are small scale maps showing the city districts. The parcel identifier

number used by the LRMA to identify land parcels is not used in the IPRS. The IPRS uses the family name of the owner as its primary reference for registering land parcels. In most jurisdictions, the parcel identifier number is a unique number used to unambiguously identify immovable property units. There may be many parcel owners that have the same family name, or the same person may own many parcels. In this case, a unique number for each parcel would avoid confusion and ensure that in the case of transactions, the rights to the correct property unit are being transferred.

The introduction of information and communication technology into the land administration system provides for the appearance of a single agency approach through electronic data sharing processes. It is electronically possible for the clients of the system to apply to obtain or transfer property rights, receive all approvals, receipts, or certificates necessary to prove their entitlement to the property rights, and subsequently register the rights at one location. All of the administrative processes and procedures will not take place at the same physical location and will almost certainly be preformed by multiple entities. However, this would require a significant commitment of funds, human resources, and time to work out the institutional arrangements to share land administration responsibilities and information and to develop, implement, and maintain the system.

 

1. Study the following words & word combinations:

communication technology, procedure, institutional arrangement, to share, immovable property, beneficial arrangement, unambiguously, entitlement, multiple entities, duplication.

 

2. Define the part of speech of the following words:

Determination, resource, responsibility, significant, subsequently, individual, entitlement, approval, arrangement, performed.

 

3. Give the synonyms of the following words & word combination:

Important, obtain, certain, land, implement, develop, large, resource, land parcel, location.

4. Put five questions to the text “Land Administration”

5. Give your own definition of the word combination ‘Land Administration’.