Registry of Surplus State-Owned Immovable property offered by spe (ROPKSK)

The Registry of Surplus State-Owned Immovable property offered by a special invitation to tender (hereinafter referred to as “ROPK”) represents a publicly available registry of state-owned immovable property that has been declared surplus (redundant) and is being offered for sale. The purpose of establishing ROPK is to expand the range of potential candidates interested in purchasing state-owned immovable property and to increase the transparency of the use of state-owned immovable property through notifying the public about the sale results. The state owns property and disposes of it by means of state property administrators. An administrator is obliged to preferentially offer surplus state-owned immovable property to organisations funded from the state budget and subsidised (quasi-government) organisations. In cases where these entities do not express interest, the state property administrator is obliged to offer property for sale to the public. An invitation to tender will be published in the daily press and, obligatorily, in the ROPK.

Policy Context

Pursuant to Act No. 278/1993 Coll. on State Property Administration as amended, publication on the Internet of property offered for sale is applied for the first time in connection with the sale of immovable state property in Slovakia. The purpose of setting up the ROPK was to make the sale of surplus (redundant) immovable property in the ownership of the state more transparent and improve the availability of offered immovable property for natural persons and legal entities potentially interested in buying the immovable property in question. The ROPK is multifunctional: the primary role is to provide information, followed by its public function aimed at making invitations to tender available for all potential candidates (global access) and the supervisory function. The Registry enhances the tendering environment and prepares the ground for receiving the highest price proposal possible. Another considerable asset associated with the establishment of the ROPK is that it prevents undesirable sales to predetermined candidates. The administrator of the state-owned immovable property subject to sale is obliged to publish the evaluation results of the individual sales of property in the ROPK, thus ensuring public control over transparency in the sale of state property. When the ROPK turns out to have played a positive role in the sale of state-owned immovable property, it will be possible to consider the possibility of publishing the offer of immovable state property solely on the Internet – i.e., the ROPK. Cancellation of the obligation to publish the offer in the daily press would lend itself to saving considerable amounts of public finance, thus simplifying the very process of selling immovable property of the state.

Description of target users and groups

Natural and legal persons interested in acquiring immovable property, either for their personal needs or business activities.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

- 1st phase: Preparation of a draft act to amend Act No. 278/1993 Coll. on State Property Administration as amended, and its submission to the National Council of the Slovak Republic and its MPs for discussion - 2nd phase: Definition of the solution architecture and operation of the Registry of Special Invitations to Tender - 3rd phase: Public procurement for a contractor - 4th phase: Testing - 5th phase: Go-live

Technology solution

Application and data layer is based on open standards. Server solution – Apache Web Server, version 2 with a PHP module running on the Linux operating system. The solution applies the PHP scripting language, version 5.2.3, JavaScript and XML. The data layer uses a MySQL database, version 5.0.44. The portal solution applies the XHTML 1.0 Transitional 1.0 standards in UTF8 and CSS 2/3 encoding.

Technology choice: Standards-based technology, Mainly (or only) open standards

Main results, benefits and impacts

During the first year of ROPK operation between 1 October 2007 and 1 October 2008, 335 invitations to tender were registered in the application, of which: 116 invitations were archived; 181 invitations to tender were completed; 29 invitations were published; 9 invitations are in the process of preparation. The administrators of immovable state property up for sale are using ROPK without difficulties. Administrators can contact the User Support Centre. The Ministry of Finance of the SR has no knowledge of any negative response thus far. A major benefit is a free-of-charge publication of invitations to tender for redundant immovable state property up for sale. Another important asset comes in the form of enhanced availability of invitations to tender (wider publication) and the transparent use of state property. Only recently (18 September 2008), the National Council of the Slovak Republic (the Parliament) adopted a draft Act proposed by MPs which amends Act No. 172/2004 Coll. on the transfer of ownership of immovable property in the ownership of the Slovak Republic to municipalities or higher territorial units, as amended. Act No. 172/2004 Coll. governs the procedure concerning the disposal of surplus immovable state property falling under the Ministry of Defence SR, the Ministry of the Interior SR and the Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunication SR, budgetary organisations established by the above ministries and subsidised organisations established by the Ministry of Defence SR. The difference compared to the original regulation is that the surplus immovable state property may only be donated to municipalities and higher territorial units, there having been no entity to have shown interest in acquiring the respective property through a special invitation to tender, further special invitations to tender or repeated further special invitations to tender. The above amendment to Act No. 172/2004 Coll. extended the range of state property to be obligatorily published in the Registry of Special Invitations to Tender.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

The solution can be employed in various areas and sectors. Its versatility makes it fit for use in the real estate sector or in the transparent sale of other tangible property. The system designed in this manner, along with the relevant processes, can be utilized in all state administration and municipal sectors.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - Simple and fast access to information concerning transferred immovable property of the state facilitates the real estate market development. Lesson 2 - The implemented ROPK project increased the transparency of information about the range of state property offered, opened up transparent access to invitations for the public and helped allay suspicions of unfair practices. Lesson 3 - The ROPK Application positively contributed to the use of new technical and technological instruments. Its introduction and use was hassle-free.

Scope: National