US firm’s land title registry plan rings alarm bells of privatisation
View(s):The cash-strapped Government is going ahead with a new land and property title registry modernisation and regularisation plan with the assistance of a US firm amid fears from surveyors that the 117 year-old Sri Lanka Survey Department (SLSD) will be handed over to a US company.
Major management functions of the SLSD, including Land Information System (LIS) and Aerial Survey Operations will be vested in Trimble Navigation Ltd, a US company for 15-years under this plan, surveyors allege.
The Government’s aim is to develop a suitable modern land administration strategy replacing the previous regime’s Bim Saviya land title deed programme which has failed to achieve expected targets.
Trimble Navigation is to be entrusted with the task of creating transparent land transfer and registration processes and secure, reliable, sustainable and accurate land records environment, a senior Lands Ministry official said.
According to the proposal, 400 public surveyors and 200 additional private surveyors with crews will serve under Trimble in conducting pre-survey/survey/data collection processes.
President of the Government Surveyors’ Association (GSA) Duminda Udugoda told the Business Times that SLSD manpower and physical resources will be handed over to this US firm which is like a precursor to privatisation of the Survey Department, the country’s oldest government entity.
Lands Minister Gayantha Karunathilake informed the representatives of the Association at a recent meeting that the government will implement the proposal of Trimble and all employees of SLSD should support this endeavor.
The Minister told a meeting held at the parliamentary complex recently that the public, private sector businesses and citizens will benefit from improved land records and information systems gaining greater security of property rights and shared incentives for investment.
He noted that a high level negotiating committee headed by Prime Minister’s senior advisor R. Paskeralingam has recommended to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) to approve this ‘Title/Tenure Regularisation and Cadastral Registry Modernisation’ proposal of ‘Trimble Navigation’.
According to this proposal, (a copy of which is in the possession of Business Times), the total cost for the project is US$154 million of which Trimble will provide up to $15 million as incentives to the Government surveyors for their successful performance on the project work.
But Mr. Udugoda said “the government has to repay this bridging finance with interest in three years and all the survey activities of the department will have to be leased to this US company”.
Trimble is proposing to work with the Ministry of Lands to identify 2.5 million state-owned lands and collect the graphics and attribute data that will be used to support the issuance of permanent titles by the Ministry to the persons currently occupying these properties over a 3-year period, the project proposal revealed.
The government has decided endorse the project proposal of Trimble as the Bim Saviya programme launched during the previous Rajapaksa regime has become a white elephant.
The department has surveyed 1 million lands and only 405,000 title deeds were issued under Bim Saviya launched in 2005 for the purpose of providing secure land title to the citizens of Sri Lanka, Mr. Udugoda pointed out.
He noted that the reasons for the delay were the lack of cooperation among various institutions, computer breakdowns and disagreements on boundaries among land owners.
If Trimble is given the ‘management of SLSD then it will take control of Sri Lanka’s electronic land register and details of lands, he said adding that this will be a threat to country’s national security.(BS)