CC BY
193
УДК 528.44
Ингольф Бурштедде
Ibu Consult Ltd., Берлин, Германия
E-mail: ibu@gmx.com
УПРАВЛЕНИЕ МУНИЦИПАЛЬНОЙ СОБСТВЕННОСТЬЮ В РАЗВИВАЮЩИХСЯ СТРАНАХ
Ingolf Burstedde
Ibu Consult Ltd., Berlin, Germany E-mail: ibu@gmx.com
MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC PROPERTIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Key words: importance of property management, property management as a business process, components of property management, practical experiences
SUMMARY
Property management is the process of inventory, valuation, use, strategic portfolio reviews, reporting and auditing of public properties as part of the decision making process of local government. It is a business process, which supports other government processes like strategic planning, mapping, operational planning, budgeting, project implementation, documentation and maintenance with important basic data. Property management can be divided into 5 different components: legal management, data management, business system management, financial management and system management.
In many developing countries there are serious gaps between a professional property management system in theory and the actual conditions found in practice. These gaps are mainly lying in the fields of data completeness, data currency, data availability, data maintenance, business processes, government procedures, and capacity of staff, skills of staff, lack of commitment from the decision makers, lack of organisation, unclear responsibilities and technical infrastructure. Property management is often (mis-)understood as just “listing the inventory”.
Property management in developing countries is a challenging field of activity for geodesists.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
„Property Management“ (Eigentumsverwaltung) ist der Prozess der Inventarisierung, der Bewertung, der Nutzung, der Berichterstattung und Auditierung des öffentlichen Eigentums als Teil des Entscheidungsprozesses in öffentlichen Verwaltungen. Property Management ist ein Geschäftsprozess, der andere wichtige Verwaltungsprozesse wie z.B. die strategische Planung, die Kartierung, die operationelle Planung, die Budgetierung, die Projektabwicklung, die Dokumentation und die Unterhaltung mit wichtigen Basisdaten versorgt. Property management kann in 5 Komponenten aufgeteilt werden: Rechtsmanagement, Datenmanagement,
Prozessmanagement, Finanzmanagement and Systemmanagement.
In vielen Entwicklungsländern gibt es jedoch größere Lücken zwischen einem professionellen System zur Eigentumsverwaltung und der Situation, die man vor Ort anfindet. Diese Lücken liegen hauptsächlich in den Feldern der Datenvollständigkeit, der Datenverfügbarkeit, der Datenpflege, der Geschäftsprozesse, der Personalkapazität, der Personalausbildung, der fehlenden Bekenntnis von Entscheidungsträgern, Schwächen in der Aufbau- und Ablauforganisation, unklaren Verantwortlichkeiten und schließlich der technischen Infrastruktur (Hardware, Software, Netze). Property management wird oft als nur “Auflistung des Inventars” (miß-) verstanden.
Property management in Entwicklungsländern ist ein herausforderndes Arbeitsgebiet für Geodäten.
1. IMPORTANCE OF PROPERTY MANAGEMENT
... for Government Finance and Development
For strategic, operational and financial reasons, property management is an important area of decision making for local governments.
New demands for better service provision, trends towards decentralized systems of public sector management in emerging economies, potential synergies and changing roles in the public and private sectors create the need for better management and accountability of government resources.
Open and effective management and reporting of public property resources is an important aspect of public trust. There is a new and heightened interest in the strategic role that property management can have for governments and their residents. As the processes of decentralization, urbanization and economic development in the cities continue in developing economies, there is growing need to provide better living and working conditions for rapidly growing populations through better service provision and improved access to amenities.
A review of successful cases of government management indicates that effective use of the property base is an important factor contributing to increases in government revenues and successful performance.
Property management is the process of inventory, valuation, use, strategic portfolio reviews, reporting and auditing of public assets and, in some cases, state properties as part of the decision making process of local government.
The main benefits of an effective property management system are to help local governments: provide local residents with improved services based on public asset use (such as infrastructure, water systems, schools, hospitals, parking, etc.); increase revenues and/or decrease costs; improve the overall credit rating for the local government; attract more domestic and foreign investors; improve land valuation (for example, through relocation of public properties, sale and leases, and improvements in infrastructure such as better roads) that make land assets attractive for productive and real estate purposes and finally enhance the environment and improve quality of life.
2. PROPERTY MANAGEMENT IN THEORY
Property Management is not just “listing” the public properties. It is considered to be an important administrative “process” in all business fields of local governments such as: infrastructure, health, education, public transportation, energy
supply, etc. It supports other government processes like strategic planning, mapping, operational planning, budgeting, project implementation, documentation, maintenance etc. with important basic data. Fig.1 shows a generalized model for this interrelation.
Property management can be divided into five different components, i.e. different areas of knowledge:
2.1 Legal Management
National and local governments need a common legal and regulatory framework that clearly establishes the authority of local government over its properties.
Like any other system of government, the property management functions have to be understood in the context of the social and political environment. The laws and regulations will, to some extent, reflect these realities.
The legal and administrative framework consists of the applicable laws and regulations that affect the ownership and management of public properties. The legal systems can define property ownership including rights and responsibilities, sale and registration differently.
2.2 Data Management
The cornerstone of property management is a well functioning inventory system. The system should contain the information to be able to assess quickly what the government owns, the type of properties and their location, as well as an up-dated value indicating the methodology used to assess the value. A first step for government
... life cycle of a property
Fi g. 1. Processes around pro°erty management
officials is to review whether there is an inventory of their property base and a transparent system for data retrieval.
2.3 Business System Management
This aspect of property management has to respond well to the local strength and the administrative processes of the local government. Local governments need well established offices and personnel in charge of property management. Their experience should contribute to improvement of the system inputs.
Since property management is both a financial management as well as a local physical planning function, a property management unit, integrating the contributions of different relevant departments, helps achieve the objectives of developing an improved and coordinated property management system.
Defining a professional property management system requires the knowledge of the “client processes” around the inner circle in Fig.1. What is the purpose of this and that particular process? Who is responsible for the different processes? What are the inputs and outputs of these processes? How are the intersections to each other defined?
2.4 Financial Management
Financial reporting is one of the strategic building blocks of local government capacity that can help attract investors, lenders and to explore real investment options strategically. A systematic review of the accounting standards and financial reports can provide useful feedback for improvement or strengthening of the system. The accounting standards and practice determine when and how transactions and economic events are reflected in the financial statements.
The purpose of the valuation and appraisal should be to give both the local government as well as citizens of the jurisdiction and beyond, access to valuable information for the purposes of planning, approval, negotiation, execution and monitoring of performance for municipal governments of the use of public properties. The valuation methods should link services provided with net revenues or costs associated with the management of particular public assets.
2.5 System Management
The data volumes and report generation requires to ensure satisfactory performance of a computer based (ICT) solution. As with the other categories, it is important for the systems management strategy to be appropriate to the organization, and different government units will have different levels and capabilities in their technical ICT infrastructure.
When choosing an appropriate software solution, each government should consider its current and future needs. The impact of this can be ameliorated by adopting a modular approach to the systems design.
3. PROPERTY MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE
In many developing countries there are major gaps between a professional property management system in theory and the actual conditions found in practice. The main gaps are described below. They are based on the author’s experiences in different countries:
3.1 Legal Management
Although laws may have been published, there can be, in many instances, areas of contradiction and lack of clarity that potentially discourage local governments in their asset decision making initiatives.
Compliance of laws, rules and regulations is difficult due to lack of capacity. Regulations can be inconsistent and contradictory. Sometimes the situation of asset ownership status and conditions is not known or unclear.
3.2 Data Management
Often the necessary data are not available, not updated or not reliable. It is difficult sometimes to find a complete data set without constraints. Furthermore existing data sets may have a low level of integration for different applications. If graphical data are available, they are mostly derived from stand alone GIS systems.
Usually the data problem is more serious than the lack of computers, software or technical networks. A paper based property management system with complete, updated and reliable data would help much more than modern computerized system where no data are available.
3.3 Business System Management
Property Management is often (mis-)understood as just “listing the inventory”. In fact it should be understood as an important administrative process, which supports other government processes like strategic planning, mapping, operational planning, budgeting, project implementation, documentation and maintenance with basic data. The important budgeting process, for example, will not work well when the property management data are not presented in an adequate form due to its specific financial needs.
In practice the processes of data exchange are often ponderous; interfaces are not defined; only the complete inventory is transferred to the “clients” without any selection or evaluation. These deficits in the information flow mainly have organizational reasons.
Furthermore the staff problem has to be mentioned. The existing personnel for property management is either not enough or not well skilled.
3.4 Financial Management
In practice property management and financial management are treated mostly as two separate processes. In effect both processes should be part of an integrated system. As already said in chapter 2.4 financial reporting is one of the strategic building blocks of local government. The property management unit in a local government should prepare and evaluate the property data for the specific needs of their colleges of the finance department. To fulfil this requirement it is necessary to define precisely the interface between the property and the financial data and optimize their exchange.
The activity of valuation and appraisal is often carried out by independent consultants because there is no adequate knowledge in the local government. This field of action should be or become a scope of responsibility of the property management units in local governments making many government decisions easier and safer.
3.5 System Management
In many developing countries property management is a paper based system, ICT systems are still under development and the IT infrastructure is still poor. Often there is no central IT-function in the administration and the equipment for IT (hardware, software, networks) is still on a low level.
Conclusion
The gaps between property management in theory and property management in practice are evident. They are mainly lying in the fields of data completeness, data currency, data availability, data maintenance, business processes, government procedures, staff (capacity and skills), and lack of commitment from decision makers, lack of organisation, unclear responsibilities and technical infrastructure.
Property management is a challenging field of activity for geodesists.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Studies:
- Studies of geodesy at the Technical University of Berlin
Professional stations:
- German Development Institute, Berlin
- CERN, European Centre of Nuclear Research, Geneva, Switzerland
- UNESCO, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
- Technical University, Berlin
- German Society for Retreatment of Nuclear Waste, Hannover
- Stadtwerke Düsseldorf AG, Düsseldorf
- IBU Consult Ltd., Berlin
Academic degrees:
- Dipl.-Ing. (TU Berlin)
- Dr.-Ing. (TU Berlin)
- Prof. h.c. (SSGA, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation)
Memberships:
- VGB - Technische Vereinigung der Großkraftwerksbetreiber e.V., Essen
(Chairman of the Committee „Surveying“; 1984-93)
- AIV - Architekten- und Ingenieurverein Düsseldorf e.V. (Member of the
Executive Committee; 1999-2005)
- DVW - Deutscher Verein für Vermessungswesen, Landesverband Berlin -Brandenburg
Publications:
- Various publications about geodetic networks and information systems
Actual activities:
- Lecturing (SSGA, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation)
- Consulting (e.g. Iran, Russia, Namibia, Albania, Indonesia)
CONTACTS
Prof.h.c. Dr.-Ing. Ingolf Burstedde
Ibu Consult Ltd.
LeistikowstraBe 6, 14050 Berlin Germany
Tel: +49 / 30 / 3641 0552 Fax: +49 / 30 / 3641 0553 E-mail: ibu@gmx.com
© Hmornfy Eypmmedde, 2010
