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CADASTRAL DATA ON YOUR MOBILE PHONE
INTERVIEW
THE ENTIRE CADASTRAL DATA ON YOUR MOBILE PHONE
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The digitalization of the cadastre reduced crowds and tension at the RGA counters, and as of next year, it will no longer be necessary to come to counters at all, says Borko Drašković, Director of the Republic Geodetic Authority. According to him, the whole of 2022 was a year of great success for this national service, with the most notable achievement being the effective defense against the hacker attack
Text:
GORDANA KNEŽEVIĆ MONAŠEVIĆ
Photo:
MILOŠ LUŽANIN
BORKO DRAŠKOVIĆ,
RGA director
I
f we were to summarize in one sentence the up-to-now results of the digitization of the Republic Geodetic Authority, which has been carried out for several years, we could say that the current operation of the RGA differs significantly from how it operated just four years ago and that the citizens notice this difference. Not only are there no more crowds at the counters and new cases are resolved in no longer than five days, but numerous new services introduced this year made it possible for every citizen of Serbia to be provided with the same data available to the director of the RGA. Of course, this is not the end of the extensive reform of this service, which will continue intensively next year. We asked RGA director Borko Drašković what challenges, problems, and goals await them on the way.
Serbia’s real estate market was very active throughout the year, with several records set. What trends, in your opinion, marked this year, and what was different compared to the previous ones? — What is different from last year is the fact that today, every citizen of Serbia can get answers to the-
se questions simply and free of charge, thanks to the Republic Geodetic Authority. Today, the same data available to the director of the RGA is also available to every citizen of Serbia. At the beginning of November, we presented a new product, the Apartment Price Index for the Republic of Serbia, which shows trends in the real estate market in a precise and credible way. After a dizzying growth in 2021 and a record in the number of transactions and property prices, the real estate market in Serbia is slowly calming down. Extremely strong growth in sales during the second half of 2020 and the whole of 2021 is milder in the first half of 2022, and the latest data indicate that this trend will continue until the end of the year. Residential property prices also showed mild growth in the third quarter of 2022, which has been observed in many other countries as well.
Last year, around this time, you came out with data obtained from satellite images showing that from 2015/16 to 2020/21, a million new buildings were built in Serbia, which then accounted for as much as 10% of all built facilities. How many newly built facilities have emerged in the last year?
— Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to such a simple question, even though there should be given that the issue is crucial for the state, the economy, and the citizens of Serbia. There are two ways to find the answer. The first way is to collect satellite images for a year, which is not the case today and requires considerable financial and personnel resources. The second, more sustainable way is for all national, regional, and municipal organizations that are involved in Serbia’s construction sector in any way to be digitalized in line with and at the level of the RGA. It is not enough to just have some IT system that exchanges PDF documents and say we are digital. Full digitization is a process that includes digital laws, digital processes, and digital technologies that enable the exchange of structured data, on the basis of which it is possible to automate processes and develop analytical tools, and that is applied to all participants in the system. A small number of institutions are aware that they need to digitize their business processes, constantly improve them, provide training, and implement new solutions. If such an approach were to be applied, the answer to your question would be simple, free, fast, and available in real time to everyone, with the possibility of monitoring both through space and time.
The year was also dynamic in the RGA itself. You’ve experienced a few affairs, even a hacker attack, but that certainly didn’t hinder the final phase of the digitization process. How far has this process proceeded, and will it be completed next year?
— To be clear right away, affairs related to RGA do not exist. An affair means that something illegal or immoral was done, which is not the case here. This has been demonstrated by numerous supervisions, investigations, tests, controls, audits, and inspections conducted in recent years by a large number of state authorities related to the RGA’s work. In the case of RGA, attempts to fabricate affairs are reactions to RGA’s anti-corruption activities. Simply put, what is in the interest of the citizens is not in the interest of various interest groups, who see the digitization of the RGA as the main threat to their comfortable and financially profitable positions, such as they had in the old system.
Digitization and reform are continuous processes that, if carried out in the right way, will never be finished as they are constantly being improved and optimized. The reform process of the RGA is proceeding in accordance with the plan and activities regulated by the agreement between the Government of Serbia and the World Bank. The challenges you mentioned, such as fabricated affairs, hacker attacks, and others, have not hindered us at all on our reform path; they even enabled us to implement very important activities much earlier than they were planned. This has been quite noticed by the citizens, and the difference between today’s RGA and that of just four years ago is evident. The system we develop and implement is one of the most cutting-edge systems in the world.
The hacker attack on RGA this summer interrupted the operation of the cadastre for more than two weeks. After five months, is it known who was behind this attack, how much damage it caused to RGA and its users, and what steps have you taken to be more protected in the future?
— There was no direct damage to the system or the data of Serbian citizens. The data of citizens and real estate remained intact and uncompromised, which was confirmed by the inspections and supervision of the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection and the Mi-
nistry of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications. We had backup copies of all data, and RGA successfully defended itself against the biggest hacker attack in the country so far. We have drastically improved the RGA system in terms of hardware, software, and processes. This means that there is now stricter control over the communication of our officers with the outside world, as well as with the remote access system of the RGA. The reaction, defense, and protection of the system were quick and efficient, thanks to the quality of the established system, the experts that RGA has, and the exceptional reaction and help of other state authorities, of which I would single out the Security Information Agency and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to whom RGA is immensely grateful for professionalism. Also, I am proud of the fact that the world’s largest cyber security companies came to our aid: Kaspersky from Russia, Carbon Black from the USA, and ESET from the EU, as well as the largest domestic IT companies such as Saga, Comtrade, Oktacron, MDS, SkyExpress, Extreme, Telekom, Microsoft, and many others. Detailed forensics and analytics were done by the biggest experts in this field, and a lot of interesting details and information were discovered that I cannot disclose because the investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office for high-tech crime is in progress.
OUR GOAL IS TO DIGITIZE OLD DOCUMENTATION SO THAT OLD CASES CAN BE RESOLVED WITHIN FIVE DAYS
The fact that almost half of the buildings in Serbia, which is about five million, are not registered while at the same time their sale is allowed, which opens up space for abuses, was also in focus this summer. Is it possible that none of the 53 laws regulating real estate transactions can solve this problem, and how can we introduce the rule that one becomes the owner of the property only by registering it in the cadastre?
— Although technically simple, it proved to be extremely difficult legally. The essence of the problem lies precisely in the fact that there are a large number of laws regulating the acquisition of rights to real estate. The solution is the introduction of an integrated system of law and mandatory registration of real estate and rights to real estate in the state register—the real estate cadastre. RGA believes that ownership can only be obtained through registration in the cadastre register. This would eliminate all dilemmas or possible abuses. Quite simply, the 21st century is the century of digitization.
Digitization is not only a technical solution but a way of thinking. A digital way of thinking implies clear and unambiguous norms and procedures with a clear beginning and end. These laws date back to the last century, and it is absolutely clear that the solution to the problem lies in changing the analog laws and applying a digital way of thinking with clearly defined norms. Due to the aforementioned analog legal solutions and imprecise norms, the verification of documentation and the procedure according to the applicable laws in certain cases take a very long time. On the other hand, the resolution of cases under the new law on the registration procedure with the real estate cadaster, which came into effect in 2018, takes up to five days. It is clear that co-validation and digitization of old documentation must be done in order to resolve them within five days, which is our goal.
Is an unregistered property the reason for the double sale of apartments, as was also the case this summer with the building in Mirijevo, or something else?
— Properties registered in the cadastre cannot be the subject of double sales. We took care of this by passing the law on the registration procedure with the cadastre, introducing eCadastre as a central, up-to-date real estate cadastre database available to everyone, and providing a large number of services, such as the cadastral alarm, which informs all real estate owners about any attempt to threaten their rights.
Despite all the problems, including the fact that you need 402 more employees because you have reached the technological maximum, RGA was presented in August as an example of good practice at the UN. What did you present there?
— In the past few years, RGA has received a number of recognitions for its work from the largest international and domestic institutions and organizations, such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Federation of Surveyors, the International Society of Appraisers, NALED, and many others. In the international framework, and here I am primarily referring to the UN and the World Bank, the reform we are implementing is known as the Serbian model of cadastre reform and is an example of the best global practice. This fact was included in the official documents of the UN, and Serbia should be proud of it. Citizens also feel these big changes; it’s enough to go to any service throughout Serbia and see that there are no longer crowds and tension at the counters, for which RGA was once known.
RGA recently introduced a new service, the National Disaster Risk Register. For what purposes can citizens use it? — The Register is the result of many years of excellent cooperation between the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Sector for Emergency Management, the Office for Public Investments, with the support of UNDP, and a large number of state bodies and organizations that worked together with the RGA to develop this system. The system allows citizens to see all information about risks in one place, such as landslides, flood areas, climate data, the geological composition of the soil, the risk
of drought or hail, and the level of earthquake risk, and to overlay this data with their real estate and make decisions about the crops they will cultivate in that area or measures to reduce the risk for their real estate. On the other hand, it helps state authorities make the right decisions for prevention, response, and remediation of sites in case of disasters, etc. provement of a certain location as well as restrictions on the same, etc. The pilot phase of the project has been successfully completed with 11 local governments, and we are currently working with 24 local governments on their integration, after which the phase of including the whole of Serbia and improving the system will begin.
Today, the data available to the director of the RGA are also available to every citizen of Serbia
This year, RGA launched the Register of Investment Locations. What information does this register provide, and what has been the response of local governments to joining it so far?
— The Register of Investment Locations is another new information system that we developed with the Development Agency of Serbia. It is a system that is extremely important for attracting and managing investments in the entire territory of Serbia. It is not only about finding an adequate investment location based on various parameters, such as area, ownership structure, location infrastructure, access to logistics infrastructure, or analysis of the available labor force in the area or market, but also includes analysis of expansion potential, the definition of measures by the state or local government for the im-
Throughout the year, RGA was one of the most active national services. What do you consider the greatest success this year, and what can we expect in 2023?
— This was a year of great success for RGA, both on a domestic and international level. However, the greatest success was definitely the effective defense against the biggest hacker attack so far in Serbia. That was the moment when everyone realized not only the importance of RGA for Serbia but also the fact that RGA possesses extraordinary skills and knowledge in the most advanced technologies. The digitization process will continue in the upcoming year, allowing Serbian citizens to access the cadastre data via their mobile devices without having to actually attend the counter.
