“Refreshed Module for the electronic determination of the estimated value of real estate will be designed for international donors money”, Andrii Yehorov, Deputy Head of the State Property Fund

Deputy Head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine Andrii Yegorov spoke about the current results of the Unified database of valuation reports during communication with the live audience on the Fund’s official Facebook page, as well as steps to further improve its technical capabilities.

The Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding the Elimination of the Corruption Scheme when Registering Information from Real Estate Appraisal Reports and Property Sale Transparency”, adopted in December last year, provides for 2 stages of development and expansion of technical capabilities of the software for the Unified database of valuation reports.

From February 1, 2020, the only Service for entering information into the Unified database of valuation reports has been operating, which the Fund has developed and put into operation on its own.The Service replaced 4 authorized electronic platforms that acted as intermediaries between the appraiser and the Fund’s reporting database.This was the first stage, and now it’s fully implemented.

“The main result of the liquidation of the intermediary scheme using authorized electronic platforms was a significant savings of citizens' funds.As of the end of May, over 4 months of the free Service functioning, it has already saved more than 200 million hryvnias for citizens.So, the time has come for the second stage - the provision of a public service for the issuing of electronic certificates on the real estate estimated value.For this, the Fund is developing special software - refreshed Module for the electronic determination of the estimated value of real estate, which will technically make this service possible”, noted Andrii Yehorov during communication with the audience of the Fund’s Facebook page.

It should be recalled that the law set the deadline for launching the refreshed Module for the electronic determination of the estimated value of real estate on July 1, 2020.

According to the Deputy Head of the Fund, back in March of this year, experts of the State Property Fund together with experts from the World Bank developed a new algorithm for determining the estimated value.This algorithm will be laid in the basis of the refreshed Module’s work.Also, in March, the Fund team developed a detailed terms of reference for potential developers of the Module and the updated System as a whole.

However, due to the need to finance various measures to overcome the pandemic of the coronavirus COVID-19 in April 2020, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the Law on Amendments to the Law “On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2020” No. 553-IX.This document, in particular, cut down the budgeted costs of creating and launching refreshed Module.

“The development of such an IT product as a Module requires considerable financial costs. Given the circumstances of cut budget funding, our team did not give up.We asked for help from international donors and received positive feedback from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).Now we are finishing preparations for signing a Memorandum on financing the development of refreshed software for the Module”, said the Deputy Head of the Fund.

And as a result, the updated module will be created at the expense of an international donor.This will allow the state to save budgetary funds that could potentially be used to purchase medical equipment, medicines, material assistance to doctors who are at the forefront of the fight against coronavirus COVID-19 or other socio-humanitarian needs.

“However, to make this possible, we need extra time. The deadlines established by law for the development and commissioning of the updated Unified Base are insufficient”, Andrii Yehorov said.

He added that this is an IT product with a developed ecosystem, deals with large volumes of data, and before its full launch, a testing phase must be passed to identify possible technical shortcomings.According to experts, this can take 4-6 months.In addition, the decision-making process on the allocation of funds for certain projects within the international donor organizations themselves like USAID, also takes some time.

The Deputy Head of the Fund emphasized the State Property Fund proposed postponing the launch of the state service to provide citizens with an electronic certificate of the estimated value of real estate.This will provide high-quality preparation for the launch of the new Module system with budget savings. “We all benefit from this: both the citizens of the country, and the State budget, whose funds will be saved, and the State Property Fund, as the responsible body for the operation of the Unified database of valuation reports”, Andrii Yehorov noted, commenting on the importance of delaying the commissioning of refreshed Module.