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September 26, 2005

A Farewell to Delays?
Author: Suàrez Ramos, Felipa; Arias Melèndez, Fraymaris.
CubaNews translations. Edited by Walter Lippmann

For quite some time, efforts by persons requiring the issuance or updating of papers related to ownership or tenancy of houses have ended in frustration and anger as a result of a service lacking in professionalism, sensitivity and training. Not infrequently, the search for personal benefit has made matters worse.

To change the poor image of the House Registration and Certification System that is prevalent in society is a fundamental goal of the National Housing Institute (NHI) and one of the reasons for having restructured its customer services.

In keeping with this goal, and following a motion by the National Office for Customer Services, controlled by the National Assembly of the Peoples Power, arrangements have been made since January 2004 to open an Office for House Registration and Certification in every municipality.

Lázaro Hernánandez Reyes, who lives in Cuatro Caminos in El Cotorrro, Havana City, is conducting paperwork in connection with Decree No. 217.

“I’ve come here twice,” he says, “the first time looking for information and this time to file my documents. The information they gave me was accurate and allowed me to bring all the necessary papers”. In 2003 he had to legalize some documents and cannot forget how complicated everything was due to the number of people on line and the need to arrive in the early hours to secure a place.

AIM OF THE PROJECT - The purpose of these offices is to concentrate the processing required by the House Registration and Certification System, to facilitate agility and convenience, to guarantee that the population is served by competent staff, and to swiftly orient and channel customer requests.

Additional goals include increasing the professional standards in dealing with every procedure; strengthen working relations with other administrative entities associated with house registration and certification, such as the Consumer Registry, Identity Card Central Office, Immigration Directorate, notaries and legal firms, among others.

Another new feature is the application of surveys to assess the satisfaction level among the population regarding these centers, to learn the quality of customer service the staff provides, and to disseminate information on house registration,and other services.

The staff is made up of coordinators or officials in charge of overseeing the application of the regulations and the attainment of the objectives, lawyers, experts from the Housing Investment Department of the Municipality (HIDM), community architects, inspectors and customer service specialists.

Social researcher Idalmis Samón Pelegrin, from Community Council No. 2 in Santa María del Rosario, is one of the specialists who once a week works at the office in El Cotorro and shares her responsibility with colleagues from other five community councils.

“Our job is to serve the population, to inform them about the documents they require for each specific application, and to answer their questions,” she comments.

MOVING FORWARD - This experience was first implemented some years ago in Playa Municipality to cover every type of legal documentation procedure, but House Registration and Certification requires a specialized office and that is what the NHI is working on. It already has more than forty offices nationwide. Fraymaris Arias Melendez, their Head of Customer Services, tells us that, “the training of specialists is still a weak point. They do not lack preparation but need to be advanced. This is one of the weak points which requires further work, because our goal is to satisfy the customers, to inform and serve them efficiently and to be sensitive about their problems.” She points out that these offices aim at a better implementation of the stipulations in the Law which is one of the present deficiencies in the system; and explains that for complaints, accusations, requests and consultations, the time allotted is 60 days, while for juridical matters the terms are very specific. These offices deal with all such matters.

“We need a lot of support from the different Municipal Governments for these offices to be established in their territories. They can guarantee that every procedure is carried out with the professionalism the customer should expect from a National Housing Institute official.”

When asked whether this new style of work could put an end to the irregularities that have so much damaged the reputation of the Institution, Fraymaris comments, “These processing offices could be another step in the House Registration and Certification System to stand against the illegalities, irregularities and stipulation violations we have experienced because there are fewer opportunities for a corrupt staff member to seek personal benefit. Besides, teamwork makes it even more difficult, because all team members would have to agree on the violation of the regulations.”

Although this project is still in its experimental stage, results so far show the possibility of giving the population better service by allowing the processing of all their applications in a single place and requiring fewer visits. The NHI, however, is not fully satisfied because, according to their Head of Customer Services, “These offices still have many deficiencies and weaknesses. We are not satisfied as we aim for much more. We need better workplaces for the population to feel comfortable, our answers must be more professional and there must be more sensitivity towards the situation of the customer.

It is important to clarify that the service of these offices does not take the place of the assistance to the population offered by Community Councils or by community leaders as outlined in the system of community services.

“Neither have we been able to establish an effective coordination with the entities related to our work. There is a lot to be done and that is why we need the participation of all parties, particularly of the local governments who must provide the material support.

When Ceferino Hernandez arrived from Cuatro Vientos, a settlement in the mountains of Cienfuegos, he thought he wouldn’t make it back to his home, 50 kilometers away in the mountains, the same day. The man, a coffee farm worker, needed to visit the Municipal Housing Department in Cumanayagua to conduct paperwork related to his property ownership certification. He was able to finish his business promptly, because he had already been informed by phone what documents he had to bring.

A similar opinion is offered by Justo Gonzalez, another farmer from Crucecitas, a mountain rural community dedicated to coffee and forestry. “When I arrived I was immediately attended to. They told me what I had to do and the same happened at the bank where I went to buy the tax stamps for the documents,” he comments.

Aurora Ortega, Municipal Director of Housing in Cumanayagua explains that since its opening in the summer of 2003, the office has processed about four thousand cases.

In the province there are offices of this type only in the municipalities of Cienfuegos, Cumanayagua, Aguada y Rodas, points out Ismael Díaz, the area Housing Deputy Director.

He states that these offices facilitate the procedures related to permutas [house swapping], sales, donations, transfers, construction and repair licenses, and other housing-related legal requirements.

Hindering Procedures

Felipa Suárez Ramos
Trabajadores, October 17, 2005

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann
The original of this document is not on the web.

Cubans take the existence of a plan to build over a hundred thousand apartments every year as further evidence of the perception that the economic situation is gradually improving.

Retaking the purpose of extending the availability of dwellings while rehabilitating and preserving the current ones is a solution to many long-standing needs, so far impossible to meet due to an almost complete absence of necessary resources.

However, housing demand has not been the sole target of so much concern. Add to this undisputable fact delays in fulfilling the procedures related to such essential assets, about which we talked with Santiago Herrera Linares, legal director of the National Housing Institute.

Can you refer to the present situation of housing-related arrangements?

“This is a complex issue that we can link to a multiplicity of regulations as well as to how some of our officials have performed. In various places and for some actions delays happen which, together with the number of steps people have to take, pave the way for extended, time-consuming bureaucratic transactions and, consequently, housing-related processes prove to be quite annoying and retarding.”

And the reasons for that?

“Unscrupulous people who had a lot of money started to break the law and turn getting a house (by means of buy-and-sell negotiations concealed as home-swapping deals) into a profit-making or interest-adding tool brought about the implementation of a number of counteracting administrative measures to face up to such situation.”

“Furthermore, those very money-powered people used their wealth to accelerate the procedures. So on one hand there are those who immorally bribe, break the laws and corrupt, and on the other hand we find some officials who collect, transgress the laws and become corrupted. Truth be told, those laws were violated in countless ways, both through self-supported[1] construction and enlargement works, etc., and the unlawful acquisition of houses itself. For instance, in addition to house-swaps, the buying and selling of houses was also disguised as ordinary, albeit illegal, transactions that became commonplace.

“There have been thousands of these cases. Illegal construction proliferated. In this connection, some legal provisions were enacted in 1997 which had an impact on the Housing Institute’s normative system and to some extent made everything more complicated by increasing the volume, number and degree of difficulty of the whole procedure.

“One of the requirements for ownership registration, assumed since 1998 by the Ministry of Justice, is that every deed must contain a full, up-to-date description of the house, including its legal prices, surface measures and boundaries. All deeds previously issued by the Urban Reform bodies were known to mention nothing about it. Besides, there were many omissions in those issued during the vast process of ownership transference organized between 1985 and 1991, by virtue of which over 850,000 families received their houses.

“Nowadays, in order to rectify such omissions, all deeds have to go to the Housing Institute before they are recorded in the Property Registration Office and, therefore, 90 % of all existing deeds are first submitted to the Institute and then proceed through other stages prior to ownership registration, which means a bigger volume of work for all traditional procedures.

“Moreover, in the year 2000 a decision was made to transfer from the Physical Planning Department to the Housing Institute all applications for and granting of permits for self-supported construction work. Thus the Housing System took over the responsibility of reorganizing these affairs, and showed in its surveys that there were more than 300,000 constructions made in some kind of illegal manner.

“What has been the outcome of this? Well, a file was opened for each of those houses with a view to a case-by-case revision prior to any decision as to what to do about those constructions, generally by applying a most favorable approach for the homeowner’s sake: ratification. In terms of paperwork, it meant to develop a procedure, investigate, and pronounce judgment on the estate’s conditions, and thousands of families have already legalized their homes, though others are still waiting because we can only take so many cases at any given time.

“As a result of such accumulation of illegal construction cases to be sorted out in a short time there is now an unusual amount of procedures and the number of cases goes way beyond historical records.

“In 2000, when the Housing System was empowered to arrange for and provide permits for self-supported construction work, it was also decided that all house-swaps, until then organized before a notary public, would have to be previously approved by the Housing Institute. Hence a new responsibility was assumed, but in circumstances when Property Titles are not registered and many have been issued by different authorities.

“Our workload grew as a result of a great diversity in Property Title types and the lack of a single place for people to go and have them verified, since swapping a house couldn’t just be based upon a simple permission; it called as well for a process of investigation, valuation, and appraisal of its technical condition so as to keep people from using such deals as a subterfuge to mask illegal acts. These realities brought forth more work but no additional forces and means, and the same goes for our people, who were forced to count on a notary public’s approval in order to swap homes.

“All this was added to the customary steps and, I believe, contributed to the current situation. That is, on one hand there were no new standards or guidelines since there were regulations in place, but what happened then? They were ineffective because of the very situation they created. On the other hand we needed norms we could enforce to come up against any illegal actions that many dishonest people used to get around the law.

“This is more or less the situation that leads to paperwork stockpiling in the Housing System,” he added.

Nevertheless, none of this, no matter how objective it might seem, can justify the unnecessary delays, ineffectiveness, lack of professionalism, subjective obstacles which foster bribery, insensitivity… Many steps are bothersome and complicated, and our country is willing to make them simpler. There have been cases as well of fraud and corruption, which are tackled as soon as they are found out. All will be solved because we count on many honest comrades who love their job and are committed to save the image of their institution.

Has anything been done to find a solution?

“After a first stage of clashing with buy-and-sell deals disguised as house-swaps, a second set of regulations appeared in 2003 which makes things easier, but not enough.

"Regarding the existing provisions which cover self-supported construction work and demand several steps to be granted a licence, we are devising a new procedure both to simplify people’s regulatory steps and officially appoint the Housing System as the body in charge of all necessary formalities.

“We have undertaken actions to qualify the major officials, as well as conferences in each province and other activities to train those who attend to people directly; but one of our weakest points is undoubtedly the stability of our staff within the System, and therefore we see those efforts drift away some.

“As an example of the volume of work we have to cope with, suffice it to say that only in cases of arrangements for which a record must be opened, we’ve had 1,023,764 cases and received 1,123,467 people who came to know about their case or file documents, for a total of 2,147,231 citizens, and that’s only for the last 18 months.

“Many people complain about how complicated our normative documents are and how much paperwork has to be done; others refer to the amount of time needed for that, but with such workload our job and our wishes of immediacy become a nuisance. We are working hard, however, to shorten those terms.

“We have to talk about both objective and subjective situations when it comes to housing-related formalities. In many places we neither have the proper professionalism and qualifications nor the necessary sensitivity, and people get more distressed about the latter, since their expectation is: if there are no construction materials available, we are at least entitled to be fairly treated; if there’s a lot of paperwork to deal with, we must receive kind answers; if the arrangements are very complicated, as it usually happens with housing affairs, we must get professional attention.

“Accordingly, if there is adequate professionalism, sensitivity and guidance, as well as plain ethics in interacting with people, the Institute’s condition, image and people-oriented service will certainly be better.”

Descriptores: CUBA; ENTREVISTAS; VIVIENDAS; LEGISLACION.

Autor: Suàrez Ramos, Felipa; Herrera Linares, Santiago.

Tràmites con trabas.
Trabajadores Fecha: 17/10/05 pag.: 6

CONOCER del plan de construcción de más de cien mil viviendas por año, constituye para los cubanos una prueba más de que en la situación económica se vislumbra una mejoría cada vez mayor.

Retomar el propósito de ampliar el fondo habitacional y rehabilitar y conservar el ya existente, representa una solución a muchas de las necesidades acumuladas durante años, las cuales era imposible enfrentar debido a la ausencia casi total de los recursos necesarios.

Pero no sólo la necesidad de vivienda ha sido centro de múltiples preocupaciones.

A esa indiscutible realidad se ha sumado la dilación en los trámites relacionados con ese bien imprescindible, y de ello conversamos con Santiago Herrera Linares, director jurídico del Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda.

¿Qué situación presentan los trámites de la vivienda actualmente?
"Es este un asunto complejo que se relaciona con la multiplicidad de regulaciones y también con la actuación de los funcionarios. En diversos lugares y gestiones se producen dilaciones que, unidas a la cantidad de trámites a realizar por las personas, genera que haya que emplear mucho tiempo y dar numerosos pasos burocráticos, lo cual hacen muy engorrosos y demorados los procesos vinculados a la vivienda."

¿Cuáles son las causas que inciden en ello?
"El hecho de que personas inescrupulosas en posesión de mucho dinero comenzaran a violar la legalidad y a convertir la adquisición de viviendas (mediante permutas que encubrían compraventas, etc)en un instrumento de lucro o para capitalizar hizo que en contraposición fueran adoptadas un grupo de medidas administrativas para enfrentar esa situación.

"Además, esas mismas personas con poder financiero lo utilizaban a fin de lograr rapidez en las gestiones. Está por un lado el que inmoralmente paga y quebranta la ley y corrompe, y, por otro, algunos funcionarios que cobran, delinquen y se corrompen. Lo cierto es que se produjeron innumerables formas de violación de la Ley, tanto en la construcción por esfuerzo propio, ampliación, etcétera, como en la propia adquisición ilegal de inmuebles. Por ejemplo, además de la permuta, para encubrir la compraventa de viviendas, también existía la simple compraventa burda, abierta, ilegal, que se conoce.

"Han sido miles las situaciones de este tipo. Las construcciones ilegales proliferaron. En este entorno surgieron, a partir de 1997, disposiciones jurídicas que incidieron en el sistema normativo de la Vivienda y en cierta manera complicaron los trámites, con más volumen, mayor cantidad y complejidad.

"Entre los requerimientos del Registro de la propiedad, que desde 1998 fue asumido por el Ministerio de Justicia, se encuentra que los títulos contengan la descripción completa, estén actualizados y tengan el precio legal y las medidas y linderos. Se conoce que los títulos que emitía Reforma Urbana carecían de todo eso. Asimismo presentaban omisiones los entregados durante el amplio proceso de transferencia de la propiedad llevado a cabo sobre todo entre 1985 y 1991, en virtud del cual más de 850 mil familias adquirieron la vivienda.

"Hoy, cuando esos títulos se van a inscribir en el Registro de la Propiedad, tiene que tramitarse en Vivienda el procedimiento correspondiente para salvar esas omisiones. Ello implica que el 90% de los títulos existentes en la actualidad han de pasar por Vivienda antes de efectuarse otros trámites previos al Registro de la Propiedad, lo cual significa más volumen para la tramitación tradicional e histórica.

"Podemos agregar que en el 2000 se decidió transferir de Planificación Física a Vivienda la tramitación y otorgamiento de las licencias de construcción por esfuerzo propio de la población.

De esa forma se transmitía al Sistema de la Vivienda la responsabilidad de reordenar estos asuntos, y cuando se hizo el levantamiento eran más de 300 mil las acciones constructivas que se ejecutaban con algún tipo de ilegalidad.

"¿Qué ha significado esto? Pues que se haya tenido que expedientar cada una de ellas, tramitarlas, valorar qué se hace con esas construcciones, en general partiendo del enfoque más positivo para las familias: el de convalidarlas.

En materia de trámites, ello significó establecer un procedimiento, investigar, dictaminar el estado del inmueble, y ya miles de familias han legalizado, y otras esperan, porque se ha ido trabajando como ha sido posible.

"El hecho de que se acumularan las ilegalidades en la construcción, y se trate de resolver en poco tiempo, produce una concentración anormal de trámites por encima del récord histórico de cantidad de expedientes.

"En el 2000, junto con la transferencia de la responsabilidad de tramitar y ordenar la licencia de construcción por esfuerzo propio al Sistema de la Vivienda, se adoptó la decisión de que las permutas, hasta entonces realizadas directamente ante notario, debían ser autorizadas previamente por Vivienda.

Así se asumió una nueva responsabilidad; pero en circunstancias en que los títulos de propiedad no están registrados y existen muchos emitidos por distintas autoridades.

"La diversidad de tipos de títulos de propiedad y la carencia de un lugar único donde acudir para verificarlos intensificó el trabajo, porque la permuta no podía ser una mera autorización, sino un proceso de investigación, tasación y valoración del estado técnico con el objetivo de impedir su uso como subterfugio para encubrir ilegalidades.

Esta realidad incrementó la tramitación en el sistema; pero con las mismas fuerzas y medios, e igualmente a la población, que debía buscar la autorización previa para permutar ante notario.

"Todo esto se agregó a la tramitación tradicional y, en mi opinión, condicionó la situación. Es decir, por un lado no proliferaron normas, disposiciones nuevas, porque existían reglamentos; pero, ¿qué pasaba?: eran inoperantes por la propia situación creada.

Por otro lado surgió la necesidad de normas que previeran enfrentar las vías empleadas por muchas personas inescrupulosas para moverse dentro de la ilegalidad.

"Es esta, más o menos, la situación que conduce a una conglomeración de trámites en el Sistema de la Vivienda", añadió Santiago.

Sin embargo, nada de esto, por muy objetivo que pueda parecer, justifica las demoras innecesarias, la ineficiencia, la falta de profesionalidad, las trabas subjetivas para propiciar el soborno, la insensibilidad.... Hay engorro y complicación en muchos trámites y es voluntad del país simplificarlos.

También se han dado casos de fraude y corrupción que se enfrentan resueltamente cuando son conocidos. Todo esto se resolverá porque se cuenta para ello con muchos compañeros honestos que aman su trabajo y están comprometidos a salvar la imagen de esta institución.

¿Qué se ha hecho en busca de una solución?
"Después de una primera etapa de enfrentamiento a las permutas que encubrían compraventas, en el 2003 se emitió un segundo reglamento que facilita las cosas; pero no lo suficiente.

"En el caso de las disposiciones existentes sobre la construcción por esfuerzo propio, que exigen varias gestiones para la obtención de la licencia, se trabaja en un nuevo procedimiento que debe simplificar los trámites de la población y establecer que el Sistema de la Vivienda asuma de oficio las diligencias necesarias.

"Hemos realizado acciones de preparación de los funcionarios principales, y en cada provincia eventos y actividades de capacitación de quienes atienden a la población; pero sin dudas sigue siendo un punto muy débil la estabilidad del personal en el Sistema, lo cual hace que ese esfuerzo se diluya.

"Para que se tenga una idea de los volúmenes que atendemos, podemos exponer que en trámites que requieren expedientes, en los últimos 18 meses se efectuaron un millón 23 mil 764 casos, y fueron atendidas para respuestas, documentos o consultas, un millón 123 mil 467 personas, lo cual suma dos millones 147 mil 231 ciudadanos.

"Muchas personas se refieren a la complejidad de las normas y la cantidad de trámites; otras a las dilaciones; pero con estos volúmenes el trabajo y la inmediatez que queremos se tornan engorrosos. No obstante, se trabaja intensamente por mejorar los términos.

"Hay que hablar de situaciones objetivas y subjetivas en el tema de los trámites. En muchos lugares nos falta la profesionalidad y preparación debidas, la sensibilidad necesaria, y esto último es lo que más lacera a la población, pues su expectativa es: si no hay materiales para la construcción, que al menos se le atienda adecuadamente; que si hay muchos trámites, se le responda atentamente; que si es muy complejo el trámite, como suelen ser muchos asuntos en la vivienda, se le atienda profesionalmente.

"Por lo tanto, si hay profesionalidad, sensibilidad y orientación adecuadas, y una ética plena de interacción con el pueblo, sin duda alguna mejorarán el entorno, la imagen de la institución y el servicio a la población.

 

foto del autora

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