Representatives of 100 municipalities will study online for eight weeks, participating in seminars and workshops as part of “Steps for Specialists. Bringing Property under Municipal Ownership”. Organised by U-LEAD, this course featured experts working with the municipalities to help strengthen their competence in the management of municipal property.
The main purpose of the Steps is to improve the professional knowledge and skills of officials in bringing various types of property under municipal ownership. The course is focused on understanding the modern challenges of this process and building skills for finding the best course of action for bringing property under the ownership of municipalities. This will contribute to more effective management of municipal property and, ultimately, to the economic growth of municipalities.
Olena Tomniuk, Deputy Director of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme, emphasised the importance of this direction for municipal development. She named management of municipal property among the most popular areas of interest among local self-government bodies, as evidenced by the number of applicants, which exceeded the number of open spots at the Steps:
“This debunks the myth that there are no resources to manage in the local self-government. The proactive interest of municipalities shows that there is a tremendous desire for professional development for the benefit of the municipality.”
Furthermore, according to Olena Tomniuk, municipal property is the foundation of welfare in the municipality, and its productive use should contribute to increasing budget revenues:
“Quality administration is key to investment attractiveness and high level of public services provided to municipalities. Basically, the property belonging to municipalities and the state should be treated in the same way as we treat our own private property, doing our best for its effective and high-quality management.”
Victoria Cheban, Advisor on Decentralisation and Local Self-Government at the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Chernivtsi Oblast, spoke in detail about all the key issues that the municipalities will study in the course of the training together with the experts of the Programme.
The main focus will be on ways to bring property under municipal ownership. Other issues also include the key stages of transferring property from other public forms of ownership to the municipal one, legal framework for the registration of newly created property and property received under sales contracts, gift deeds, exchange or other agreements into the ownership of the municipality.
Municipalities will explore the concept of forced alienation of property to serve the public interest, its difference from redemption and the public importance of this tool, as well as the issue of obtaining ownerless or abandoned property by studying the civil legislation and building skills in drafting relevant documents.
The course will also cover state registration of property, namely legal procedures for registration of immovable and movable property, drafting documents to register property rights, as well as relevant municipal property policy issues, including possible challenges and new opportunities for municipalities in the field of property management.
“The training programme will equip municipalities with the adequate knowledge and tools for effective management of municipal resources,” said Victoria Cheban.
