'Click' to get construction permit

From next October, people can get a construction permit by just sitting at home, "clicking" and spending 50,000 VND.

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has just requested the Department of Construction to complete the online construction permit process, under the authority of the Department and the People's Committees of districts, to officially apply from October.

It only takes 10 days

Ms. Saphi Ta, living in Binh Tan District, said that she specializes in buying old houses, then demolishing them, rebuilding them, or repairing them to sell them, so she comes into contact with authorities in the construction and urban fields "like eating every day."

If before, applying for a construction permit and meeting officials was a "pressure", now it has become much easier thanks to online construction permitting.

She just needs to sit at home, turn on the computer and apply for a construction permit without having to go to the ward or district People's Committee. "If before, I had to go to the district, get a queue number and wait, sometimes it took all day, now I can sit at home to apply for a construction permit or just go to the district once, it's much more convenient. Specifically, just click the mouse and you can apply for a construction permit in about 10 minutes. After entering the information, just wait 10 days to get the results," said Ms. Saphi Ta.

Online construction permitting both saves time and reduces negativity.

However, there are also cases where online application submission fails and they have to submit directly at the district, such as Mr. Thanh in District 8. Due to many adjustments to the current drawing, he had to go directly to the one-stop department to get a construction permit. According to Mr. Thanh, online construction permit issuance is only suitable for standard documents, without any corrections or additions; but for documents with errors in drawings or documents, people still have to meet the officer receiving the documents to make corrections, which takes more time.

A leader of the People's Committee of District 8, the first locality in the city to pilot online construction licensing, said that people only need to go to the district's website, which has a section for submitting online construction permit applications. After submitting, the application will be checked, received and responded to fully and validly by professional staff via email or phone of the applicant (investor) within 24 hours.

Processing time is calculated from the time the online application is confirmed to be valid and complete with all accompanying documents. People who want to check the status of their application can go to the "application search" section.

In case the application has legal problems (land plot is in planning, real estate is in dispute, land use right certificate is illegal, design drawing does not meet design/planning standards...), the applicant will receive an email, text message or phone notification from the competent authority. At that time, the applicant will submit additional or corrected documents in the "file search" section. When the application is ready, people can receive the license by post or go to the one-stop department of the receiving unit to receive the results.

Mandatory deployment

Although it is convenient and quick, the leader of District 8 People's Committee said that people are still not familiar with and not "enthusiastic" about this new way of granting construction permits.

Since the online licensing service was launched in August 2016, only 150/1,600 building permits have been issued online. The biggest reason is the current drawings. Surveying companies often draw incorrectly, with incorrect information about floor height, setbacks, etc., leading to the drawings having to be revised. However, it is difficult to guide people to adjust online, so they have to call them in for direct guidance. Therefore, to be assured, people still bring their documents to the district to submit directly.

Mr. Tran Trong Tuan, Director of the Department of Construction of Ho Chi Minh City, said that this is one of the online public services that is suitable for the trend of e-government and smart cities, and is also a preparation process to meet the trend of public services in the future.

This public service brings many benefits to the people and management agencies, the most outstanding of which is publicity, transparency, and limitation of negativity. Regarding the information that the number of licenses granted online is still too small, Mr. Tuan said that this problem is related to planning information that is not yet public, making it difficult for people and design consultants to access, leading to errors in current drawings when applying for construction permits. In the near future, the city will have regulations on sanctions for design consultants. They must be responsible before the law for their drawings if errors occur that cause damage to the people.

According to Thanh Nien Newspaper