Reducing Construction Permits: Realistic?

In the draft amended Construction Law expected to be ratified by the National Assembly soon, all constructions must have permits before being commenced, including construction works approved and authorised by State agencies, which are currently free from construction permits.

 

To ease conditions on construction permit granting, facilitate investors and ensure feasibility, the Law Compiling Committee collects constructive opinions and remove the provision that “Have construction contractors with sufficient conditions and capabilities as stipulated.” In addition, the committee has reviewed and supplemented the draft with a number of articles specifying sequences, procedures and responsibilities of agencies involved in the work of granting construction permits towards boosting publicity, transparency and simplicity of administrative procedures to enable organisations and individuals to apply for construction permits while defining accountability of construction permit-granting agencies and related agencies.

 

The ministry also specifies that, prior to the commencement of a construction, the investor must have a building permit except for the following: Works classified as State secrecy; works built under the order of urgency; temporary works built to serve public work construction; works built on route that do not pass urban zones but suit construction plans approved by competent State agencies; works that repair, renovate and install inside equipment which do not alter the architectural facade, structural strength, performance and safety of the works; infrastructure works that only require economic - technical reports and personal houses in rural areas that do not have countryside development plans approved by competent State authorities.

 

The ministry has minimised the number of building permits to ease burdens on the people while performing close management to avoid loss of State and social resources and capital.

 

With so many current licences as now, construction violations are still quite common. Hence, it is very difficult to tighten State management and avoid the loss of State and social resources and capital after building permits are reduced. Currently, apart from the Law on Construction, we have a lot of other related laws like the Law on Urban Planning, the Land Law, the Law on Investment, the Law on Housing and the Law on Real Estate Business. Therefore, there is a need to review and assess the scope and content of amendments made to the Law on Construction, with consideration taken into other laws, to ensure uniformity and avoid overlapping. Especially, it is essential to define the roles, functions and contents of amendments to the Law on Construction in the direction of defining and focusing on construction activities as well as legal principles related to construction activities in order to determine rights, obligations and entities with connection to construction process in an effective and sustainable manner.

 

With respect to construction permits, the enforcement of the Circular of the Ministry of Construction that allows violators to pay fines for the continuation of unauthorised works reflects the powerlessness of management agencies. Obviously, these “compromising” documents will engender the precedence for "laws of unscrupulousness."

 

It is said that “give and take” mechanism in building permit granting. The Ministry of Construction perhaps sees and understands the parallel existence of regulations and violations. It cannot be inactive to violations and it would rather impose a fine than do nothing. Clearly, it is worthier to impose a fine and let it be than to let it be without any fine on it.

 

In fact, with the above regulations, enterprises may be very willing to pay fines rather than carry out conversions procedures because paperwork with State agencies usually means long waiting time and repetitive paper content correction. Overall, paying fines is even cheaper than making changes to constructions.